Why white people aren't as cool as black people

Pity the conservatives: they will never win the cool war. Being cool is always going to mean reaching curiously towards something foreign and, as long as the right wing is focused on pushing the foreign away – whether that be immigrants, gay people, Muslims, women, or especially blacks – it will never be cool.

To be cool, you need to be part of a minority – not one so minor that it is invisible, but one that is easy for a lay person to imagine and understand. Also, it’s not enough that you reject the majority – it needs to reject you first.

In the United States, the most visible and easily understandable population of rejects is black people. This is why the bleeding edge of cool is always black (which is apt, because black people have been bleeding for centuries). When other minorities enter white spaces, reactions range from polite disinterest to hostility (when California’s first Muslim judge was appointed this year, people called him the “Jihadist Judge”). But when black people enter a white space, they’re cool by default. This is because for black people, even squares like Obama, being cool is completely effortless. Sometimes, it’s even unwanted.