The unseemly fall from the high horse

I'm sure Michael Brick was a respectable journalist, may he rest in peace. One would assume getting a piece featured in the The New York Times at all is a mark of skill, of talent, of respect in the journalistic world. I'm sure Brick thought his piece "Out of the Loft, Into Reality; A Hipster Quits Williamsburg, and gets a Haircut" was witty, heartwarming, and maybe a little cheeky in a good-natured way.

I'm sure of all these things, yet I agree with not one after reading this piece.

What was presumably supposed to be a little funny (at the expense of the subject himself) turned out to be a condescending, somewhat offensive piece about a hipster's escape from what Brick apparently believed was not a worthwhile lifestyle. The entire piece reeks of sarcasm, of (perhaps intentionally) poorly disguised disdain for Todd Fatjo and his "truly dope" lifestyle.

It's unclear whether the piece was supposed be ironic, or some weird critique of the gentrification of Williamsburg. Instead, it seemed to attack Fatjo at every turn, through a mask of almost feigned respect. With few quotes from Fatjo himself included in the piece, Brick wove Fatjo's words into his own self-indulgent language, contrasting his own phrase of "the hipster equivalent of semaphore" with the less fancy and obviously 'inferior' "flier on the wall." Fatjo, who is described only by his Afro, his apartment, his role as a DJ, seems to care only about the parties in his loft.

That is, until he shears his Afro to a "nice, respectable wave" (talk about gentrification), grows up, and decides to move out of the party spot of the century. There's something exhausting about the NYT reporter coming on the scene and giving his pithy two cents on the lives of others, those whose lives are wrought with "squalor" and can only be comforted by partying.

Again, though I doubt there was malicious intent, the classist undertones and unshakable superiority complex make it difficult to enjoy this little glimpse into Fatjo's life, much less believe that it is an accurate portrayal of a man who surely is as complex, layered, and three-dimensional as the rest of us.

I may not know much about journalism as of now, but I do know writing from atop one's high horse means you have much farther to fall.