Where Is the Outrage Over Sasha Frere-Jones’s New Column?

This week’s issue of The New Yorker has been on newsstands for almost twelve hours, which means that anyone who started reading Sasha Frere-Jones’s column this morning has probably almost finished by now. In it, Frere-Jones posits that social progress and technology are to blame for the unfortunate decline of miscegenation in pop music, and that these days white artists like Devendra Banhart can appreciate black ones like R. Kelly by shouting them out in a New York Times Playlist or making them a Top 8 MySpace friend, instead of copping their musical style. Also, he argues, Arcade Fire are really, really white.

We agree with him, pretty much on all counts, but we’re a bit surprised that nobody’s blogged their reactions to it yet. Arcade Fire are pretty white — but shouldn’t pointing this out infuriate somebody? Stereogum? Anyone? Is it possible that no one’s made it to the end of the 3,500-word piece yet? If that’s the case, we anxiously await a conniption from Brooklyn Vegan sometime on Wednesday or Thursday.

A Paler Shade of White [NYer]