Loading ...The "mipster" phenomenon
Most people have heard of the term “hipster”, which conjures up images of hip young, middle-class urban adults with progressive ideas who are into indie music. But what of the mipster, the “Muslim hipster”? Is it a real or just an imaginary concept? And for young American Muslims, is the label a blessing or a curse? By Joseph Mayton in San Francisco
It’s a normal afternoon in San Francisco’s Mission District. The usual range of beard-toting, tight pants-wearing techies has gathered in the area’s open air park or the myriad cafes that have popped up to serve the recent influx of tech workers who have moved into the city.
The unsuspecting eye might not have noticed a group of five sitting at a café near Dolores Park. The men have neatly trimmed beards, their computers are on the table, and the conversation has turned to some grassroots Indie rock band. The five are all practicing Muslims; one of the women is wearing a veil. These are not your ordinary hipsters, but maybe “mipsters”, Muslim hipsters.
Ammar, a 27-year-old Syrian-American programmer, is quick to shy away from the newly minted term used to refer to young Muslim-American professionals who espouse similar notions of the world to “hipsters”.
“I don’t know if I like that term,” he begins. “I don’t think we are supposed to like being referred to as a hipster in any way, right? But, if people are calling us mipsters, then that’s fine because it at least means we are American.” The hint of antagonism towards Muslims that has flourished in the United States over the nearly 15 years since the September 11 attacks in 2001 is still being felt by Muslim-Americans.
For this group and thousands of other young Muslims across the country, the identity of the “mipster” is going mainstream. “I guess you could say we have made it,” Ammar continues. “At least they are making fun of us because we are supposedly hipsters who happen to be Muslim. But I don’t really like it.”
Source: en.qantara.de