Brilliant and self-conscious or racist* and simplistic?
*Note: I don’t mean that it’s racist against white people. That’s… ridiculous.
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It strikes me as a collection of stereotypes; but that in itself is probably part of the point. Getting to think of ourselves as individuals and not just cyphers onto which people project their preconceived notions is an element of white privilege.
I don’t know who is behind the site or who it’s for, either. I like to think that it’s a group of POC. If it’s some het white cis hipster dudes making fun of a bunch of only slightly different het white cis hipster dudes, then it’s just cheap more-x-than-thou.
I didn’t laugh. But then, my humorlessness is well known.
I haven’t been through the whole list, but there’s a line Homer Simpson uttered after watching a black comic’s comparison of black and white driving styles: “It’s true! We’re so lame!” See also: Black People Love Us.
But Mos Def? They may be stretching with that.
All of the above? It’s a fine line between biting satire and offensive caricature, and most racial humor spends some time on both sides of the line.
I’ve seen this around a lot lately and I guess it’s kind of going over my head even though I’m a white person. #71 and #62 I find funny and incisive, and actually connected with issues of race/being white, but the rest I just don’t get. (I don’t think it’s “racist and simplistic”, or offensive at all, but I just… don’t get it. Divorce? Recycling? Huh?)
Maybe it’s an age thing in my case, or I’m just clueless again.
Does FOLK MUSIC or MACRAME make an appearance? If not, then it’s definitely a project with a decidedly Gen-X-to-Gen-Y bent.
Ghostface Killah.
it’s definitely a project with a decidedly Gen-X-to-Gen-Y bent
I agree. Also, middle-to-upper-class.
I wrote the blog. I have half a PhD in Film. It’s brilliant. Don’t worry.
Dang! I know I shouldn’t be surprised, considering how I see myself in the mirror everyday when I comb my hair, but I really, really am hella White! I never thought of myself as Mr. White Guy, but these stereotypes waayyyy apply to me.
However, they also apply to my wife who is, last I checked, not white. I’d make a crack about how (unlike in the old days when you could be as white as an albino, but once you were Jewish — or Irish or something — you were immediately non-white) since she is Jewish she is White even though most of her ancestry is presumably from Africa. But many of her African-American and non-Jewish friends are also just as “white” as I am on these measures.
I’d vote for “Brilliant and self-conscious” over “racist and simplistic” but for the fact that using “white” as a synonym for “bourgeois” is a bit racist and simplistic, is it not?
A colleague of mine sent this to another colleague and this was his response:
I am still puzzled that he mis-named Brook’s book and used an apostrophe to make the word plural…
*Brooks’s
Let he who is without sin cast the first apostrophe
FE, that’s okay, I prefer the usage “Brooks’”, though some style manuals reserve that usage for Jesus and Moses. I’m not one for special treatment for religious figures.
I guess that depends on whether you can judge a blog by its comment section. I was laughing really hard at the Messy Break-Ups post (especially since I observe some of that in all of my friends, white or not), until I read some of the seriously racist screed coming from the comments. Admittedly, some of it was huffy white people going the “well, if you make fun of me, I’ll just hate you!” route, but there was some really hateful stuff from POC as well. I’m not sure that means anything necessarily; people who just don’t get it might see it as an opportunity to spout nasty things, but I didn’t really get some of it either. Unless the joke is that these are stereotypes of white people, even though they are things that just plain people do/think/say/like, in the same way that other racist stereotypes are, i.e. fried chicken for African American people even though I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like fried chicken. I’m a vegetarian and man oh man do I wish someone would make a soy version of fried chicken. Mmmmm…. But I digress.
i’m white, i lived in wiliamsburg for 5 years, i think it’s dead on! i don’t see how any white person between the ages of 18-45 who lives in an urban/college environment cannot recognize these things as intrinsic to hipster whiteness. i think we could stand to be called out on fetishizing non-western women/religion/food and “safe” people of color while telling poor people what’s best for them before dropping half the GNP at Whole Foods a little more often. we’re pretty f%$^ing ridiculous.
I wouldn’t call this offensive or racist, but after awhile I certainly found it pretty tiresome and predictable. I’m not even sure the kind of white person they’re mocking exists as a cohesive stereotype.
I would probably have less of a problem if there were only, say, a few dozen entries and the blog were a short-term endeavor, but at this point the bloggers are already more or less recycling earlier material (“Being the only white person around” is, by the author’s own admission, more or a less a rehash of earlier entries, and it’s not the first time I’ve seen that kind of thing happen) or just making shit up (Mos Def, as someone mentioned earlier, may well be popular, but I don’t really hear the hippest of hipsters or yuppies namedrop him with great regularity to prove how cool and tolerant they are).
Anyway, I probably wouldn’t really care for it no matter what group of people are behind it, although if it’s white, hip 20-30somethings than I’ll have to agree with Thomas, TSID.
Yes.
I was unaware of reserving the s’ for Jesus and Moses. I usually do it when adding another s makes the word unpronounceable. But I think “Brooks’s” is okay. (I am generally a fan of s’ though–underrated and not often used correctly)
/grammar nerd
Someone sent this to me last week, and speaking as a white person from a fairly bougie, liberal-minded New England family, I personally think it’s hi-larious.
And not to suck all the joy out of it by intellectualizing everything, but I think the political accomplishment of the site is twofold– first, I tend to feel fondly towards anything that destabilizes our ideas about whiteness by naming the various artifices that accrue to it. I mean, I think one of the ways that white supremacy can function is by casting people of color as hyperracialized and white people race-less (and thus making whiteness the norm and non-whiteness the “other”). It’s a major facet of white privilege that we (ie, society at large) tend to think of white people as having no culture, no racial identity, etc… whiteness is naturalized and seen as universal and I think “Stuff White People Like” does a good job of undermining that by poking fun at all these cultural facets that white society takes for granted because it’s been so normalized. And then secondly, I find the particular interpretation of whiteness on this site to be especially hilarious– other people have noted that it depicts white people of a specific socio-economic and political sector, and I totally agree that you could take issue with the conflation of “white” and “bougie.” But for me, I particularly appreciate that this site calls out the most self-congratulatory breed of white person (the fiscally secure white liberal) as perpetrators of whiteness… these are exactly the kind of people who make claims like “I don’t see race” while fetishising nonwhite peoples/cultures and feeling really good about themselves for having lefty politics and not being like those other “bad” white people.
Anyway, I’m sure others can be a whole lot more articulate on the subject than I have (sorry) but I just wanted to throw my .02 in because I do happen to think the author of that site must be quite brilliant.
Actually now, my comments seem pretty rambling and banal and what I should have just said is that I think the site’s choice to focus on what another commenter referred to as the “conventionally liberal” is still timely and while it might not adhere to particular cohesive stereotype it definitely describes my family!
What I love most is that I was watching “Bamboozled” not three days ago and gushed at some length about Mos Def to my (also White) friend who had never heard of him… and I felt just oh-so-hip! It makes me sad that I am a cliche :(
Not offensive to me at least, but a lot of the entries are pretty obvious.
However, the one about “Expensive Sandwiches” almost gave me a heart attack from laughing so hard.
I quite liked the living by the water one… Extreme Reading.. That made me laugh, mostly because I would love to live by the water, also I would most likely spend all of my time by the water reading. It really does add to the experience.
I second that, Meggo. I read StuffWhitePeopleLike yesterday while eating homemade vegetarian sushi and drinking tea. Overall I found the site to be uncomfortably hilarious.
It’s definitely more class-specific than the title might lead you to otherwise think. It’s pretty funny, though there are a couple (like #62) that hit kind of close to home. I didn’t realize that Feministe were a bunch of condescending assholes for posting a story about WIC recipients getting coupons to go to the farmer’s market and using them, but apparently you were.
I loved it. Nothing like satire for a good time. Sure some posts are more funny or more poignant than others, but that’s like most writing. Also, I found the ones that applied to me the most to be the funniest. But, of course, I love mocking myself even more than I love mocking others. So when they do it for me, satirically? GOLD.
It’s hilarious!
Sounds like a Chris Rock special.
i thought it was hilarious. it otherized white people by speaking of white culture the way we speak of black culture, which is to say they take one part of white culture–in this case Manhattan liberals–and conflate it with all whites.
its very discombobulating
I think the funniest part is that some white people get all huffy about it. In fact I’d add that to the list: “Getting huffy at ‘white’ jokes”. Also: “Rejecting the notion of race while enjoying white privilege” or “Saying race does not exist, only class”. I mean, the fact that it so heavily conflates race and class is part of the stereotype-based satire, dontcha think? I don’t know about “brilliant”, but it’s some pretty funny shit.
I discovered it yesterday and laughed my ass off because it rang so true. Though I think it’s more Stuff Coastal Yuppies Like.
I call it racist.
It’s reinforcing all the stereoptypes about white people or upper class people that are around. I’m sorry, but I thought we were supposed to be fighting against stereotypes? I’m a vegan, I recycle, compost, read books from the library, drink organic tea, ride a bike, etc, etc, and I am not upper class and it has nothing to do with my being white. There’s this thing called individuality. The blog is just not funny at all. I’m not usually easily offended by humor, but this is ridiculous.
It’s offensive and I’m honestly offended that so many of the feminist blogs I like are promoting it (not this one).
Eh, I thought it was okay. Funny in parts, not so funny in others. I agree with the posters who think it’s a class thing rather than a race thing. In fact, I’d go further and say it’s aimed at Liberals/Trust Fund Hippies* vs everyone else.
Or maybe it’s just where I live? Most of the tourists and virtually all the business people fall into the SWPL categories, no one else can afford to do that sort of thing even if they wanted to.
Hmm, must ponder.
*there are a lot of those where I live, so, I might be stretching it a bit
It’s definitely more class-specific than the title might lead you to otherwise think. – Mnemosyne
And politics/religion specific. I have a friend in pretty much the same (economic) class as I, but he is politically conservative and a religious Catholic and by the standards of what he likes vs. what I like vs. what white people like, I am far whiter than he. Many of my wife’s friends (and fellow liberals) are African-American of varying income levels and Jewish, Buddhist, Unitarian or (if Christian) 7th Day Adventist: they are far more “white” in their tastes than I am.
As I and others have said above, “white” seems to be more a label for a certain social (though not necessarily economic) and political class than for race (and I agree, even as I am the sort of person being satirized by this blog, it’s a completely funny send-up of my ilk).
Actually, it would be an interesting story about how many of the markers for “white privalege” this blog sends up are markers of a certain kind of person (urban, non-Christian or at least a less “mainstream” sort of Christian, not necessarily caucasian) that 50 years ago would certainly not have been considered “white”.
The point that jumped out at me the most was “#58 Japan” as it reminded me of several exasperating conversations I’ve had recently with White Japanophiles at my university and online along with some right-wing Japanese international students.
It is infuriating how they often feel the need to defend Japan’s side by using the Japanese right-wing revisionist talking points whenever the discussion goes into the discussion of Japan’s colonial legacy/war responsibility….revealing not only their ignorance…but their buying into Japan’s arguments of privilege that throwing enough cash at the victimized countries is apology enough and the victims are “ingrates” if they do not agree.
It is one reason why the Japanese are sometimes regarded as the “WASPS of Asia” by citizens in countries victimized by their colonial rampage. This attitude was one major reason many Asian women who were forced into sexual slavery refused payment from a private non-Japanese government sponsored fund back in the 1990′s. It was seen by most of the victims and their supporters as a clumsy bribery attempt to buy their silence and thus, effectively wipe out the Japanese government’s guilt/responsibility.
Disclaimer: My parents and aunts were children during the Second Sino-Japanese/WWII and some were old enough to remember witnessing Japanese soldiers invading their towns in China.
wow @ the comments on their #52/Sarah Silverman.
I had no idea white Jews weren’t white. Where do people come up with these ideas?
also if i never have to see (or type, blast it) the word “Jewess” again, I will be markedly happier.
I think this is more of a “stuff stereotypical limousine liberal hipsters like”. It’s heavily class oriented, so the idea of it being what white people like doesn’t ring particularly true for me.
jayinchicago, best not to read the comments over there. I learned that quickly.
Well, to be fair, Jeff Foxworthy basically cornered the lower-middle-to-lower class angle on white people. And that’s why he got the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Prize for Two-Day-Old-Kool-Aid-Moustache Jokes.
Yeah, my first reaction was “funny,” and when I asked if it was racist I didn’t mean “Is it racist against white people.” It was more the comments that made me think some people don’t really get the joke…
That should be #72: Not Getting Jokes.
As a white, tea drinking colbert/stewart loving, japanese speaking, humanities major, I find the blog hilarious. In some ways, it mocks the priviledge that whites enjoy. We have the social status and middle class backgrounds that allow us to become wine, tea and coffee snobs. In fact, it points out just how stupid and consumerist ‘yuppie’ culture is.
And I’m sorry, but “Stuff White People Like” is way less offensive than Mind of mencia or Dane Cook.
Kmari, your comment settles it for me: The blog is spot-on.
I’m a little conflicted, but I’m inclined to take it as satire. I do find it a little odd that so much of it is aimed at middle-class urban hipsters/college students, but I think, as others have pointed out, that it’s not that far off from the sorts of “that’s what *insert non-white group* like!” comments that are made about other groups. I’ve taken other people’s advice and not read the comments, so I can’t say anything about those.
I totally agree with others who have said that being middle or upper class figures into the items as much as race does, as well as the liberal/coastal/yuppie thing. I think it is pretty astute, but glosses over the idea of other classes and subcultures within white America. For example, the queer community, people who didn’t go to college (whether or not they had the resources), and the huge numbers of indigent and working class whites in the south and midwest. There might be some shared cultural interests, but also some significant differences based on income, location, religion, etc
I also wasn’t thrilled when the blog made fun of “womyn’s studies.” I can’t think of any universities that actually spell it that way…does anyone know of one?
I’m not really sure how it could be considered “racist.” Unless we’re going off of the blather that says stuff like “blacks can be racist towards whites!!!! they’re the real racists!!!!” . . . I’m clearly missing something. And while I hate to be the one to start that debate, I have to say that there is absolutely nothing racist about people poking fun at a dominant class. Which is what we, as white people, are. There is a huge difference between perpetuating racism and pointing out the social customs of those who do actually perpetuate racism. Now, if there is genuinely hateful stuff towards white people being spewed in the comments, that’s an issue, and certain part of the responsibility of having a blog is keeping that stuff in check. We also have to remember that while hateful speech about whites is vile, it has very little power to do anything more than hurt our feelings. And that is absolutely not the case with hate speech directed at racial minorities.
I think that it’s funny and rather smart. And that most of the arguments for it being racist are both rather telling and unflattering — which is probably a big part of the writers’ intent.
OMG don’t you see how black people are so mean to white people and they have affirmative action and cooler music and all these privileges that we don’t?!?!
Just kidding, obviously. I wasn’t trying to say that the site is racist against white people (as you said, that’s hard to do). In reading some of the posts (and especially the comments), it seemed to me that some of the jokes about white people are being made based on racist stereotypes about people of color.
My personal favorite so far is a comment lamenting the fact that Europeans fail to differentiate between “Asians” and “Orientals.”
“And I’m sorry, but “Stuff White People Like” is way less offensive than Mind of mencia or Dane Cook.”
Yeah, that’s probably because there’s actually a little bit of thought put into “Stuff White People Like”.
I wasn’t trying to say that the site is racist against white people (as you said, that’s hard to do). In reading some of the posts (and especially the comments), it seemed to me that some of the jokes about white people are being made based on racist stereotypes about people of color.
Good to know, Jill. I was kind of confused, since I’ve been reading Feministe for some time and was quite sure that you were not in agreement with that kind of thinking at all.
I’ve only read a handful of the posts and haven’t come across much yet that struck me as a racist stereotype about people of color, so I guess I’ll have to peruse more. And like others, I’ve taken the advice to NOT read the comments.
I think it’s fucking brilliant. The conflation of race and class are exactly what makes it so damn right. See, there’s a whole lot of Stuff White People Like that didn’t make the list:
Harley-Davidson, baseball caps, U.S. flags, Carhartts, jam bands, convertibles, pickup trucks, cowboy boots, Redwings, hair gel, crucifixes/St. Christopher’s medals, Marian shrines in the front yard (bonus for the upside-down iron bathtub), bar-b-cue, blues music, midnight Mass, mostaccioli dinners, fried turkey, bingo, mixed martial arts, wrestling, Nascar, horses, casinos, greasy carnival food, pizza, hunting (especially deer hunting, which gives you deer sausage and deer chili), tank tops, card games (varies regionally as to types of poker, or pinochle, euchre, etc.), punk rock, skateboarding, hot sauce/salsa/habanero peppers, blue jeans, flannel shirts, hoodies, knitting, scrapbooking……
and why? Because young, urban white hipsters would then pat themselves on the back for not being so gauche as to like that stuff, the stuff that only r*dn*cks or “ethnics” like, ‘cuz they’re so hip and cool and postracial. And then this blog comes along to blow all that postracial biz right outta the water.
I about had a stroke over the “Expensive Sandwiches”. OMG. Lemme tellya, what are now expensive sandwiches weren’t so hip and cool and with-it when it was Your Ethnic Mother (or Grandmother) packin’ ‘em in your grade-school lunchbox back in the seventies. What used to be the perfect way for getting rid of leftovers (just add salami, tomatoes, fried peppers, and cheese) is making big bucks for enterprising white folks who had to be taught how to say “soppressata” a couple of years ago. Only now there are panini grills. Usta be, you used an iron fry pan with another iron fry pan on top (for weight).
(unspoken theme? once white people–the right kind of white people, of course– get ahold of something, grab your wallet. Shit is going to get real fuckin’ expensive.)
I wonder when dreamcatchers over the rear-view mirror are going to make the blog?
Okay, here we go. Now I think I get where you’re coming from, Jill. Maybe I’m just missing the satire on this one, but #62 sounds an awful lot like “people are to blame for their own poverty and it’s laughable to try to make the world a more equitable place.” Surely, lots of tactics for this are misguided, as is implied, and that could have made for a funny post — the misguided and arrogant ways that many white people “help.” But instead I walked away feeling more like the sentiment was against “the poor” than against “white people” (obviously not two mutually exclusive groups).
The site itself I found mildly amusing, but the commenters are damn awful. Look at this wonderfully enlightened person (who is clearly reading the site for its satire):
Rise up and impregnate all white girls, I get 7-8 white girls pregnant per week, it is my life’s work. I also have 17 children in my own melanin-soaked family and each of my sons are also involved in kneading the seed into the “whetto” furrow.
Do the math while we do your women…
In the end, any kind of bland generalizing never leads to anything good, IMHO.
I found it hilarious and yes, I am a target of most of the jokes. I read it as being along the lines of the old Phil Ochs’ song, “Love Me, I’m a Liberal”:
I cried when they shot Medgar Evers;
Tears ran down my spine.
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I’d lost a father of mine.
But Malcolm X got what was coming,
He got what he asked for this time,
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.
I do think it would be nice to have a deconstructive explanation in the About section, but I understand why it isn’t there.
Hmm…I’m also kinda conflicted on this one.
I recycle. I support social programs. I drink tea (though I prefer coffee). I’m a vegetarian. I love to travel. And I’m not white.
I also have some issues with the “Knowing what’s best for poor people” one. First of all, “becoming exactly like them”? This assumes that all “white people” are rich enough to afford things like shopping at farmers’ markets, that the poor not only shouldn’t change their consumption habits, they wouldn’t anyway even if they had access to a greater variety of choices. This almost gives the impression that whoever wrote this thinks that such things are for whites only and should remain that way! Which is total bullshit, in my opinion, because that totally discounts the role played by the economic system (run by rich whites, oddly enough). I’m not going to get into this, but in short, it’s totally the system of agricultural subsidies (enforced by the rich, white CEOS of agricultural forms) that’s restricting the consumption habits of the poor.
I would propose another addition to the list of Stuff White People Like: Making endless appeals to the rational actor, while running a system that very clearly affects the choices of the individual and vehemently denying the existence of such a system.
Also, since when was voting Democrat “white”? Because, if anything, I would think the Republicans are the “whiter” party, what with their policies so friendly to the rich whites, at the expense of everyone else.
Finally, this kinda hits a few nerves for me, as I am also experiencing a few “identity issues” at the moment. I’m brown, but I was born and raised in Canada, in a well-off family of not-so-recent immigrants, surrounded mostly by other whites. I’ve gotten a lot of crap from other Indians for being “whitewashed”. As much as I hate that kind of thinking, as much as I don’t want to give a shit about what I do and like in any effort to conform to some pigeonholed idea of my own race, I can’t help sometimes but feel massively guilty for “acting white” and betraying my fellow Indians. I honestly don’t know…it seems so easy to say that I should just accept myself for who I am, what I do and what I like, but it really isn’t.
However, all that said, I do find some parts funny. Like the part on Asian Fusion cuisine. And expensive sandwiches. I make sandwiches exactly like those at home, but for a fraction of the cost.
Bah, sorry for this long, incoherent rant. My brain is just short of a pile of mush right now >_<
I think this website is genius for everything that lubu said at comment 48 AND because of the discomfort people feel at it. As a black professional student at a mostly white Midwestern town, i can’t tell you the number of times I am in discussions with fellow students and have no idea what there talking about. Most of the things mentioned on the site aren’t familiar to me because its not the way i grew up, yet everyone around me expects me to like these things (being outside, Gondry, knowing whats best for poor people) because its the “normal” and cultural mature thing to do. Heaven forfend should I choose to have different tastes or ways of living–all of a sudden my tastes are less sophisticated and less worthy of value. Its an isolating feeling and I love that this site really shows people that hey–your choices and daily life isn’t necessarily normal or even all that great.
I also find the comments here interesting because it seems like a lot of people are uncomfortable with the website because it seems to be promoting stereotypes or trying to box white people into one group…the way that other racial minorities constantly are. I view the website as exposing the ways of the educated white liberal who doesn’t take the time to truly understand that the things they like or to understand that the way they live their life isn’t always the norm or the most acceptable way of living.
thoughts?
It seems pretty obvious to me that this is a satire of the way people treat “black culture” or “hispanic culture”, etc. as a monolith. Of course not all white people are like this, and I seriously doubt that the blog author actually thinks that. But it’s not all that much more ridiculous than the assumption that black people are all the same… and it seems like a lot of people do think that.
oh and i think that #20 is my absolute favorite.
I also find the comments here interesting because it seems like a lot of people are uncomfortable with the website because it seems to be promoting stereotypes or trying to box white people into one group…the way that other racial minorities constantly are. I view the website as exposing the ways of the educated white liberal who doesn’t take the time to truly understand that the things they like or to understand that the way they live their life isn’t always the norm or the most acceptable way of living.
thoughts?
My main problem with a site like this is the “fight fire with fire” backlash school thinking. You say you’re uncomfortable with boxing racial minorities into one group, yet you applaud an effort to do this with a racial majority? It’s a double standard that I think doesn’t accomplish the goal society should be seeking.
I’m reminded of a few years ago when a bunch of stories started coming out about unrealistic male body image in the media, with the tone of, “Okay, feminists, quit complaining about skinny women on TV, because now the men get anorexia, too!” NOT THE POINT. If stereotypes for minorities are bad, why would you fight them with stereotypes about majorities?
I think I’m going to go make a list of how many of those stereotypes I think I conform to. I’d like to see a survey of people on this site of ALL races and see the results.
My main problem with a site like this is the “fight fire with fire” backlash school thinking. You say you’re uncomfortable with boxing racial minorities into one group, yet you applaud an effort to do this with a racial majority? It’s a double standard that I think doesn’t accomplish the goal society should be seeking.
I guess I should clarify. What I find interesting is that this website seems to be targeting a specific segment of the racial majority, the segment that most people view as being morally and culturally “superior” all the time. I’m a full supporter of most educated middle-upper class white liberals and their commitments to social justice and other positive movements. BUT I am frequently disturbed by how often people think that if they stick to the “right things” that they are above criticism or even good natured teasing. As if not being into monster truck rallies, booty hip-hop music, and boxed wine all of a sudden makes you better than everyone. I think there is something to be said about the reactions to this website (in the comments here but mostly on the site itself) because rather than acknowledge that “yeah, some of this stuff is true” and laugh it up, there are people who are taking real offense to it and feel that it is something that merits deep analysis about the bad stereotypes ungrateful POC have and the that the white liberal is taking on shit when all they want to do is help people and make the world a better place.
To me its not about boxing a racial majority into a group; rather its about asking the educated white upper-middle class liberal to take a look at their practices and maybe realize how they come off to other people. And on a less serious note, its about making fun of yourself.
hope that clarifies.
Most of the things mentioned on the site aren’t familiar to me because its not the way i grew up, yet everyone around me expects me to like these things
Boom. Shot. Sydney, if it wasn’t for reading that blog, I still would never have heard of Gondry. And I confused Wes Anderson with Wes Craven on my first reading (“yeah! white folks sure love Freddy Krueger and all those other slasher flicks! Hey…uh….what? Not Freddy Krueger? There’s another film director named Wes?”)
That’s something I notice about POC blogs I frequent; there isn’t an assumption that everyone who visits and reads automatically knows who/what is being talked about. There’s more background explanation and links available. On most white-owned blogs I frequent, there seems to be more in-crowd jokes and other stuff I don’t get, and perhaps it is only my perception, but there seems to be a vibe of if you don’t get it, maybe you aren’t meant to be here.
Again, the leaving off of certain White Stuff was deliberate on the part of the blog author—has to be. Orange County Choppers? American Idol? Hockey games? Country music? Water parks? Union bugs in the rear window? All extremely popular with white people. Mullets? Tribute bands (with full Marshall stacks)? Auto-Zone? Bruce Springsteen? How could things like that be left out, unless deliberately? Yeah, it’s about showing that white yuppies have a distinct culture too (and poking some fun at it).
Again, the leaving off of certain White Stuff was deliberate on the part of the blog author—has to be. Orange County Choppers? American Idol? Hockey games? Country music? Water parks? Union bugs in the rear window? All extremely popular with white people. Mullets? Tribute bands (with full Marshall stacks)? Auto-Zone? Bruce Springsteen? How could things like that be left out, unless deliberately? Yeah, it’s about showing that white yuppies have a distinct culture too (and poking some fun at it).
There’s still time! The thing’s barely been going a month.
Hmm.. a mixed bag. The thing that kinda gets me is not that it puts white people in a box (a very familiar box, and the expensive sandwich thing is hi-larious!), but that it says to all the other non-white folks who do these things that they are race-traitors. Recycle? No longer hispanic. Like sushi? Forget being black. I grew up with too many friends who got shit for “acting white” to think that this doesn’t hurt them. And I know too many hipsters who adopt these attitudes as secret proof that white=better. Like the shitty high school chant: “That’s all right, that’s OK, you’ll be working for us someday”.
Also, I’m all for identifying white privilege. I just don’t think that WP is about sushi – it’s much deeper and more insidious – WP is the way I don’t get pulled over, the way I can browse in a boutique without being followed, and the way my name doesn’t get my resume cut in the first round. These are things that even the poorest white folk have access too – mixing it up with (pretty damn funny) bougie self-loathing creates a red herring.
Hey, I’m all for bougie self-loathing. But it’s not a critique of white privilege. Someone of any color can laugh at psychotherapy.
If stereotypes for minorities are bad, why would you fight them with stereotypes about majorities?
The difference being that, as a couple of people have pointed out above, we all know this isn’t about what all white people like – whatever the surface claims – while plenty of people give credence to ideas about “What Asians like” or “What Black people like”. Contrasting this site with male anorexics (who as men might be in the minority when it comes to their illness, but decidedly are not in the larger culture) makes for a false parallel. Stereotypes about non-oppressed groups are not harmful in the way stereotypes about minorities are. For one thing, they’re much easier to cast off as ridiculous and only applicable to a subset, as we’ve all managed to do here.
I’m all for what sydney and La Lubu say, that “its about asking the educated white upper-middle class liberal to take a look at their practices and maybe realize how they come off to other people” and “Yeah, it’s about showing that white yuppies have a distinct culture too (and poking some fun at it).” And if it’s just letting off some pointed steam among similarly exasperated friends and isn’t intended to educate white people, that’s cool too.
My dirt poor (white) ex girlfriend sure didn’t. She was harrassed and stared at everywere we went (in affluent parts of Los Angeles). Various working-class aesthetics and speech patterns of someone of any race look pretty suspicious to rich white people.
That’s what frustrates me about the blog. The conflation of race with class does a diservice, IMO. A small select few enormously wealthy white people have the majority of power in this country, and the rest (POC and ‘poor white trash’ alike) get scraps. If someone wants to attack the most entitled, privileged ruling class – which seems to be the blog’s agenda – they should know it hardly includes everyone who has light skin.
Lazar,
I’ve been down that road before as a Chinese-American…though probably at a much younger age than you (unless you are 7-13). Moreover, there are several critical differences such as the fact I am a child of immigrants and that I grew up in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the US (NYC). Though I spent most of my childhood in a White/Latino working-class urban neighborhood, I did benefit from attending a junior high and public magnet high school with substantial Asian-American populations.
Moreover, I was probably on the opposite side of where you were as I found I got along better with Asian-born Chinese and Chinese-Americans who retained some affinity for their familial heritage in college than I did with Chinese/Asian-Americans who were “Whitewashed”…..though a lot of that had to do with the fact most of latter group had condenscending attitudes due to the fact they were “more educated/enlightened” by virtue of their being more assimilated into a White-dominated North American culture and being from upper/upper-middle class White-majority suburbs.
Though how you resolve your identity crisis is ultimately up to you…especially if you want it settled on your own terms….I would examine whether your being labelled “whitewashed” was possibly a defensive reaction by the “fellow Indians” who may perceive a possibly condescending attitude due to your “well-off” socio-economic background and the perceived privileges of being more assimilated in the White dominated North American cultural environment.
Best illustrative quote proving point of original reference, February 2008! Congratulations!
Maybe that’s part of why I’m not so into it. I didn’t even know expensive sandwiches were a “thing” and I’d never heard of Gondry and I only saw Mos Def in “Hitchhiker’s Guide” (which I kind of regret sitting all the way through, though not because of Mos Def.)
I don’t mean “Well this proves I’m a cool wonderful down-to-earth white person so the blog couldn’t mean me!” I just mean I’m out of the loop and stay in my apartment too much.
But I definitely get the idea of what the site is trying to do, and I’m not immune from thinking it’s just so cool to fangirl people of color or other stuff the blog is poking fun at. And I definitely agree that “not all white people are like that” must be part of their point. Though if I say “Well, OK, I’m white and a liberal but I’m not upper class or a hipster so I’ll point and laugh because I’m not like that at all!” I’m sure that I’m still missing the point myself.
Of course the omission of more “working-class” white interests was deliberate. The reason that it’s funny to classify this stuff as “things white people like” is that the targets of the joke would be appalled at the idea that they have developed a culture that marks them as “white”, and concerns itself with things that the average POC (I’m assuming that stands for person of color, but that’s kind of a weird acronym) finds silly. Working class or non-liberal types wouldn’t give a rats ass whether the things they like are viewed as white or not.
That site is absolutely no different than one devoted to making fun of rednecks or the like, (or any other stereotype) in that the modern urban liberal is every bit as much of a silly cartoon sometimes as rednecks are. And that’s alright really. I’ve got some great friends that are ridiculous liberal cartoons, just like I’ve got some great friends that chew skoal, aspire to be UFC fighters, and have nascar stickers on the back of their giant pickup trucks.
Hell, I can be kind of a stereotype myself sometimes.
Most of it was funny, I thought, but the one about asian women seemed to take the stereotypes about Asian women as fact instead of dismissing them. The one about hating your parents was pretty hilarious though, since that’s the observation that my host mother has made after at least a decade of hosting mostly American middle/upper-class white kids. And since I’m studying in Tokyo right now, the one about Japan especially hit home.
I don’t think the site is racist or offensive yet, but it will be.
One of the things that trips up a lot of otherwise decent white people is that they project their own clue and good faith onto their co-ethnics. What else can they do really? You gotta go along to get along, and if you stare too deeply into the racial hearts of your family, co-workers, neighbors, that cute guy/girl at the laundromat in Fort Greene/Silverlake, etc., well, you might have to disown a BFF now and then.
(I should add that need to forgive white folks their racial limitations for reasons of social/professional/sexual lubrication is a universal affliction, bedeviling colored folks as well. As bell hooks has noted, one of the hallmarks of a white supremacist frame is “an irrational love of white folks.”)
The author of Stuffwhitepeoplelike, with her half PHD in film theory and all, might have a very nice conceptual matrix for her website, but at the end of the day it’s a dog whistle for white racists. If you spend any time reading the comments section there’s a kind of greased slide effect where you start out high and end up low, and the author, who seems to be aiming mostly for the inevitable book deal, isn’t policing her forums. Given that the site largely exists to display the author’s erudition, as opposed to, say, existing to build a community of properly ironized white folks, the crap in the comments will eventually come to stand in for the site as a whole, replacing the author’s wanly humorous stylings.
As I’ve written before, deliberately inviting unprocessed or undermanaged masses of white to play with certain racial concepts is like inviting small children to play with knives. Somebody inevitably gets stabbed in the face and, statistically speaking, they tend to be colored. I’ll pass, thank you.
“My dirt poor (white) ex girlfriend sure didn’t. She was harrassed and stared at everywere we went (in affluent parts of Los Angeles).”
I think that’s where the “access to” part comes in. If you take pains to ditch the accent, grammar, and inflection that mark you as poor when you open your mouth, the clothes that mark you as poor on sight, and the irregular name spelling that might tip a prospective employer off, you can usually pass without problem. You do all that as a black person, well…you’re still black.
Mmm… it was bit too racist for me. Plus, slightly boring in that if you’re not American, it doesn’t really apply. Only Americans seem to need to point everyone’s differences out, most other first world, western (which I’m assuming is the main audience for this blog and the mentioned blog) countries just get on with things. Maybe this is why the Obama/Clinton thing is such a big deal? New Zealand has had a female prime minister for donkey’s years but you don’t hear them banging on about it. Some bits were a bit humourous but they didn’t seem to be a white thing, they seemed to be (and this has been said already quite a few times) more of a class thing.
Hmm. Much of it, not so funny. But I join the crowd in thinking that the Expensive Sandwiches thing is fucking hilarious.
Just slimmed through the site, and I get it. Not necessarily, “ha ha” funny, just “ehh” funny. Although, I got a kick out of #7 Diversity:
“White people love ethnic diversity, but only as it relates to restaurants.”
So funny, but in a very sad way, because I really do hear conversations like this a regular basis. I’ve also heard the “oh wow, you’re XYZ, I love XYZ food” statement, as well as the “You’re XYZ? I’ve never had XYZ food before” a few times. Yes, please, reduce me down to my cuisine, thanks.
I actually really liked the post #62, “Knowing What’s Best for Poor People”… I think it’s easy to deny that working-class white culture is a VALID culture all its own, not just some “poor-man’s” version of upper or middle-class white culture. That while everyone SHOULD have access to organic/health foods, we’re not all going to immediately start using homeopathics and eating raw diets. That we might actually prefer fart jokes and NASCAR to book clubs and televised golf; it’s not our “lack of education” or financial resources that prevents us from joining midde/upper-class culture.
I skimmed the site when it was linked somewhere else a few days ago and was left mostly blank by it, not that I couldn’t understand what was being poked at (though I had completely forgotten who Mos Def was and just found that one bewildering!) (obviously I am no longer part of the young, urban hippster class, if I ever was), but because there was an element that seemed to be missing. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but I think what’s missing in many of the entries is the hidden pleasures of so many of our oldest stereotypes of the racialized ‘other.’
Think of all the hateful things levelled at POC over the years – lazy, over sexed, clever about evading hard work, always late, disrespectful, love of fast music, rough language, rich spicy greasy foods, loud bright clothes, wildly orgasmic sex, untidy spaces, ……… these things?
They are very, very, very tempting in the face of a hegemonic culture that insists that we (white or white-aspiring folk) be the opposite – hard working, driven even, sexually chaste/controlled, on time or early, respectful of power, fan of sedate pleasures, mild foods, tame language, bland clothes, missionary only sex, obsessive tidinesss.
The old stereotypes like so powerful, and persistent, and infinitely interchangeable, in part *because* they reference things that are or can be really, really appealing to those who are denied them.
Unlike the sandwiches one(which is one so many people here do find funny and telling), or the ‘my breakup is so special one, a lot of the things mocked aren’t really all that desirable nor reflect especially desirable behaviors, in part because there isn’t a clear oppositional category from which to have the desire (I want to burn through the earth’s fuels as quickly as possible and poision the earth at the same time!!11!! – okay, someone probably really thinks that , but I doubt they are the same person who in some secret part of their soul really would love the opportunity to drive hybrid car) – they aren’t the desirable opposite of some repressed, disciplined thing the ‘other’ folk are supposed to be doing.
I think that’s where so many readers who are outside the particular culture are just left kinda puzzled, because the things mocked? If you aren’t already drawn to them don’t make much sense.
yes yes yes.
I’m not sure how realistic this is, though. We aren’t all Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady, and I should have been more clear earlier – coming from poverty is not only about external markers, but is often built in to one’s identity and sense of self. So besides the fact that speech habits are hard to break (especially withut the privilege of an education), and that poor people cannot just “ditch” poor-looking clothing (in favor of what? second hand goodwill clothes that look expensive?), when you ask someone to do all kinds of impossible things to “pass,” you take away a sense of culture, much like asking a queer person to “tone it down.” It being one’s internal and external identity.
“I’m not sure how realistic this is, though.”
It’s more an illustration than a prescription. I am aware of both the inherent difficulty in and problems with actually doing it.
The point I was making was that if you’re white, there is the potential at least to fully access that privilege. It’s a long shot, and probably not worth it, but it’s possible. If you’re recognizably not white, it doesn’t matter how much of that you do, how much of yourself you change, how much you give up, you’re still stuck with the baggage we pile on minorities. You might have more money, education, etc., than anybody could shake a stick at, but you’re still going to have to deal with a society that has a negative response to your skin and then judges your merits and accomplishments within that context.
The more I’ve thought about it, the more I think that it’s very close to genius. For a lot of the reasons that are mentioned in the comments here. Also, yeah, a lot of the things listed as “Stuff White People Like” *aren’t* things that people like- Divorce? Difficult break-ups? Lawyers? I mean, sure, if you’re in a bad relationship, a divorce might be something you like, and if you’re in legal trouble, a lawyer is great, but as a group?
I love the satire- and, yeah, a number of entries made me uncomfortable, because they hit close to home. That’s sort of the point of satire, though, isn’t it? The target is “a group of white people who tend to be self-congratulatory about racial issues, even as they engage in some pretty sketchy behaviors regarding race”. What would be the point of trying to satirize stereotypical white republicans on race, when so many people already assume that many white republicans are racist a-holes? If someone says “such-and-such a conservative republican said X racist thing!” we’re not shocked.
So, yeah, I’m much more inclined to go with satire. If you’re looking at it thinking “but, I’m white and I don’t like #69″ I think you might be missing the point. You’re not supposed to actually like everything on the list- the site isn’t actually about “stuff white people like.” It’s social criticism.
I’m bowled over by all the earnest “but not all white people are like that!” responses.
Yeah. Exactly.
I’m not reading all these comments so sorry if it’s been said, but I think this is less “white people” stuff than upper class college kids and the yuppies they grow into stuff. Also you can totally tell the author’s from Toronto.
I thought it was dull and mean-spirited. And I’m not white.
Mostly it seemed to be a re-hash of tired old conservative stereotypes about people farther left than they are: that they’re all rich white yuppies with no more than a superficial level of caring for the causes they so publicly weep for. Implicit in all this mockery is the notion that caring about this stuff at all makes you self-indulgent and self-absorbed and is probably a sign of privilege. Or that caring about *anything* at all is a sign of privilege, especially if what you care about is a social problem. Caring about it makes you a self-righteous and whiny do-gooder, as per this stereotype.
I don’t really buy that it’s supposed to be a take-down or satire of white stereotypes of “black culture” or “Latino culture.” I can think of much better ways to satirize those stereotypes. This blog doesn’t mock or ape the tone of all the pontifications about “black youth” or “hip-hop culture” at all.
Getting to think of ourselves as individuals and not just cyphers onto which people project their preconceived notions is an element of white privilege.
Okay, see, this is both self-flagellating and insulting. I’m a Native woman and I think of myself as an individual, not just a cipher. I’m aware that other people see me as a cipher–something white folks don’t have to be aware of–but that doesn’t mean I don’t “get” to think of myself as an individual.
My RA at the U of Delaware wouldn’t let me read the site.
I think it’s silly satire. As long as it doesn’t cross the line to assert any extreme negatives in other cultures, it’s barely passable. Entertaining for a few minutes, but not a keeper for anyone of substance, imho.
The point is that (white) people make stereotypes about non-white people ALL THE TIME and expect/assume that they hold true for the majority of people. So all the white people who are looking at those saying “they aren’t all true” or “only some apply to me” or “maybe I’m too old? because I don’t get it” are PROVING THE POINT: that stereotypes are foolish, and that if we were to assemble all the stereotypes about, say, East Asian/Americans, they would all do the same thing, they’d be like “huh? that’s not me” or “well that’s true for some Asian people I know but it’s also true for some [insert race here] people I know!”
The point is to show that white is perceived as “normal” in this society. There are characteristics that you have if you’re black, or Latina, or Native American, etc, but if you’re white you get to be an individual. This site is brilliant satire, as far as I’m concerned, by giving white stereotypes.
The one about Asian Girls annoyed me, simply because it was just way too close to what REALLY is said to feel satirical. I know that’s the point but it just didn’t do it for me.
I don’t think the blog’s racist. I also think that feeling like it doesn’t describe you (if you’re white), or thinking it’s not really about whiteness as a race/culture but some other thing, is the point of it.
Mostly it seemed to be a re-hash of tired old conservative stereotypes about people farther left than they are: that they’re all rich white yuppies with no more than a superficial level of caring for the causes they so publicly weep for. Implicit in all this mockery is the notion that caring about this stuff at all makes you self-indulgent and self-absorbed and is probably a sign of privilege. Or that caring about *anything* at all is a sign of privilege, especially if what you care about is a social problem. Caring about it makes you a self-righteous and whiny do-gooder, as per this stereotype.
Thank you. The site really bothered me, and I was trying to work out why. Am I just a huge hypocrite who can’t take a joke? Should I be looking more closely at how I view other groups? Yes, and yes, certainly. I’m working on it. I’m trying to see the funny parts. I rather enjoyed “difficult breakups,” because it’s so silly and true.
But “Knowing what’s best for poor people” is the kind of argument I hear against Habitat for Humanity and the like. Because someone with privilege tries to use it to help people who don’t, it’s viewed as “slumming” and not genuine, which is so often just an excuse used by the apathetic to justify their cognitive dissonance about not doing anything to make the change they want to see in the world.
It’s a white author of a certain socioeconomic/educational milieu holding a mirror up to the people around her. It’s sharp, but it’s got a limited audience who will recognize the humor and stereotypes and be unsettled by them.
Which is interesting, because it’s much easier to go for the golfing WASP bond-trader stereotype.
Having grown up mostly around the working class variety of white people, I found the site Fucking hilarious and useful, I wish I would have read the section on Indie Music prior to engaging in some fairly awkward conversations with my upwardly mobile white and white like friends. Lost a lot of white cred. on that one.
If there wasn’t some kernel of truth to that “tired old conservative stereotype” then there wouldn’t be so many folks here in this comment thread so perplexed and confused about what the site is about. Is it funny? Does it have social significance (as though humor somehow needs to be justified)? Should I laugh at this so I don’t seem too self-righteous, or should I be offended? It’s hilarious.
The site really bothered me, and I was trying to work out why.
Okay, sorry about the tags. I’m not sure how to get in there and fix it.
..all this guilt, qualification, and hand-wringing over whether it is okay to enjoy this website (often written in the form of a post which claims the site is not funny, or was not enjoyed). .. …dare I say it?
I have actually been with people who look inside ethnic restaurants to judge the ‘authenticity,’ AKA “How do the brown people feel about it, though?” and it’s the biggest face-palm ever. Never close friends, thank the Lard, but it still sucks to be walking around with people like that with no way out of the situation.
That statement was meant to convey that I believe they’re seeking to illuminate the ridiculousness of the vast majority of white America, and then take it a little over-the-top to show just how bad it is that people have to wonder whether it’s fake or not. Y/Y?
The post about lawyers argues that white people like lawyers because they are good at over-analyzing things and that white people tend to over-analyze things, often in a very self-absorbed manner. See previous 91 comments
If there wasn’t some kernel of truth to that “tired old conservative stereotype” then there wouldn’t be so many folks here in this comment thread so perplexed and confused about what the site is about
So…not getting a joke means you are the joke?
Yeah, okay, sometimes that’s true.
It bothered me, too. And the reason is that it’s (a) racist and (b) saying something worthwhile.
You can’t escape that the site is racist. It’s making broad stereotypes about a group based on their race. If we can agree that a statement like “white people are bloodsuckers” is racist we can agree that “white people like expensive sandwiches” is racist too, no matter how funny or trivial it may be. It’s directed at a class subset of the dominant race in America, and that strips it of much of its socially destructive power, but that doesn’t strip it of its racism per se.
But it’s still uncomfortable and angering to read. Part of that comes from things that hit too close to home, and part of that comes from the inevitability of much of the stereotypes. Grew up near the coasts? Whitey. Care about the shit that you put in your body? Whitey. Your mom’s Chinese and your dad’s a Jew? Double whitey, and you’re dad’s a whitey, plus you’re “very annoying.” It doesn’t even matter if you’re actually white. Like Lazer says, it’s still someone calling you Whitey, and that can hurt like a motherfucker.
It’s hurtful. It’s racist. And the point is that it’s still saying something that needs to be said. The shocked realization that the stereotype applies to you, that the gross and vaguely negative generalization of your group (racial or otherwise) includes things you grew up doing and thinking were totally fine, is hurtful no matter what race you are. And some people need to have that realization forced onto them. I think about race issues every day, so most of what I got out of it was hurt. But that doesn’t mean that someone who actually does think their knowledge of wine and Thai food + owning a Prius = the right to be criticism-free won’t stumble onto the site, read it, and start thinking more deeply about race and power and maybe even trying to be more aware.
Also, one last point:
from above. I’d just like to say: awesome. Definitely think we should keep those whites from thinking about race issues, or discussing it, without some empowered race thinker around to moderate the discussion. Totally the best way to keep shit under control and manage how those racially insensitive whites learn about the error of their ways. Wait, didn’t I just read something suspiciously similar somewhere…
The above comment is typical whitefolk okie-doke. I didn’t say that white people shouldn’t think about race, I said that they needed better guidance and context than is currently being provided by stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. I’d be curious to know exactly what it is about that statement that you find particularly controversial, especially in light of the number of racist comments being left by readers in comments at SWPL. Is it that I dare to claim an empowered position in this discussion, decentering and underprivileging all you whiteness studies types who sit around waiting with baited breath to have discussions about “race” that don’t focus on people of color or your guilt/implication in real life inequalities? Is it that I don’t seem much predisposed to give you or the site’s author an automatic gold star for just showing up? Is that I don’t hold white people’s stutter-stepping “journey” towards racial sanity in the reverence I’m supposed to under white supremacy, where it’s all loving white folks and their problems all the time? Is it that I compare the racial clue of the broad base of white folks to small children playing with knives? Do tell.
As far as me “acting white” by telling you what to do, yeah, well, I guess. I’ll just assume for arguments sake that you’re white, but the thing is you know as well as I do that I prolly know what’s good for you in this particular arena. I know you guys hate hearing this, but as a high achieving person color who’s spent most of his life navigating predominantly white spaces and listening to you guys go on and on about yourselves, I just tend to know your side of the fence a lot better than the vast majority of you are likely to know mine, this even in the age of Black Presidents and Oprah. I’ve made my peace with the fact that Maria Sharpova was born playing a better game of tennis than I ever will, and white folks should come to grips that when it comes to their grasp of issues of race, the ice/limb under them is usually not as strong as it seems at any given moment. It’s pretty straight-forward.
But like I said, you guys keep talking amongst yourselves. I guess the lesson here for me is that (of course!) white people turn out to be the hidden victims of white supremacy. I hadn’t realized your internal experiences of things like “stereotype” were so impoverished that mediocre claptrap like SWPL rates as “brilliant.” Talk about affirmative action! Or that a legacy…?
The site as a whole was very funny, but there are a few things which can’t help but bug. For instance, the comment under lawyers mentioned going to a therapist as a sign of the need to “over-analyze” things. Just a passing comment to be sure, but I don’t really appreciate the subtle jab at people who go to therapy. Yes, there are some over-privileged white yuppies who go just for the heck of it, but many people who go do it because they need to. A little more understanding of that would have been nice. Mostly, it was funny…and quite true, in many places.
I think what may be offensive about this comment is singling out and comparing (loosely, I’m sure) white masses to small children. Whether the statement is true or not, it may also be true that any mass of any race toying with race issues carelessly will invite injury to others. That it was solely white mentioned may have been the sensitive notion. But then again, we are discussing a particular site/ viewpoint of stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.
If you are offended, that’s because it’s talking about you.
The site is satire. A joke. Making fun of stereotypes. Sarcastic. Tongue-in-cheek. Get it?
Though many of the commenters are a*holes.
shoot, i am one of the most phenotype ambiguous persons ever and I love half that list AND the blog itself.
The lads, or lasses, who run stuff could get a dozen posts from the comments here.
This is a target rich environment.
jesus christ, way to analyze it death and run the damn thing into the ground
a lot of you people have the sense of humor of a dead fish
Racist? # 30, and honestly I had not time to read after that, come on. Do we have a general
understanding of the definition of racism? It is not a word to throw around and use to accuse when someone steps on your toes or criticizes one. Racism is believing that one’s group is biologically superior and using that belief to discriminate and more. Racism has been used to justify genocide and Jim Crow, which basically allowed lynching.
So, trying to inform white people about privilege they may not recognize, people who try to be “nice” with statements like “I don’t see color” and “All people are equal,” is not racism. No one is taking away rights, threatening, or even trying to say another race is superior.
It offends humorless people, so I love it.
It is racist. Read the articles. Again and again, the underlying themes are that whites are ignorant, lazy, simplistic, easily duped, insincere, phony, etc etc etc. It purports to be “scientific” but there is no research, no stats, nothing scientific at all. Racist writings have classically claimed to be valid using pseudoscience or merely claiming to be scientific. If you are making bold unsubstantiated claims about an entire race, and even a few people of that race are offended, it is racist. Some people, however, are too stupid to know they’ve been offended. This is not playful it is hateful.
Weak tea. I can relate to some items on the list by virtue of the fact that I’m part of a certain class. But I’m brown, so this exercise strikes me as a way for someone to make fun of a specific type of people with whom one would like to create some distance, mainly other white people. I’m going to assume that the person who wrote this list is himself/herself something of a white liberal making fun of other white liberals who are less “enlightened” about their tastes, in his/her opinion. He/she would probably have been uncomfortable adding trucker hats and NASCAR because it’s too much implied elitism. Making fun of OTHER middle to upper-class whites, however, absolves him/her of the “insensitivity” and, yes, ACTUAL racism and classism that might emerge from a broad-ranged satire of ALL items associated with white people.
While the confusion of race and class might be intentional, the fact that its presentation is so one-note really blunts its overall impact. Furthermore, most white liberals I know who like to do this shit would never, ever make a statement like “I don’t see race”. What they don’t “get” is white privilege: I kind of agree with the person who said that the real target of this website is white privilege, but it’s doing it in a pretty stupid way.
My number one “stuff” that white people like: all the white people who like to say they’re OK with this list and berate other white people for “not getting the joke”. Sorry, had to say it.
Number two: “The Wire”.
it is NOT racist. It is satirical and critical. It is also a lot of stereotypes, generalizations, untruths. All of those, yes, but it is not RACIST.
It is poking fun and maybe pointing out that people do things with one intention without realizing how it is perceived by other groups (eating out at “ethnic” restaurants but never really caring too much about actual people).
It is not racism nor even reverse racism. It is looking critically at a race, yes, but it is not a using a feeling of superiority to take away basic rights. None of these blog entries prohibit whites from buying a house in any kind of neighborhood. They do not prohibit whites from continuing to shop at WholeFoods. None of the blogs threaten anyone’s life or livelihood. None of the blog entries claim to be scientific, as eugenics once was. And, with eugenics, there was “science” to justify segregating schools, keeping people from voting, and going unpunished for lynching. There is a HUGE difference between racism based on eugenics and superiority and satirical blogging that recognizes race with humor and the attempt to show stereotypes for what they are–generalizations that do not apply to whole groups of people.
This is a learning experience
It’s so funny that most (presumably white) people object to the site on the grounds that it mostly describes upper/middle class tastes — without realizing that all the stereotyping of other racial/ethnic groups does the opposite (i.e. stereotypes other groups of people as having low-class behavior/tastes)!
The fact that so many people find reasons to protest this mainly harmless and sometimes funny site proves how uncomfortable it feels to be the butt of racial stereotyping — even when it’s about rich, privileged people!
Hopefully the site will help white people understand just a little of how other groups who are stereotyped ALL THE TIME (and with much worse consequences) feel.
[...] Brilliant and self-conscious or racist* and simplistic? *Note: I don’t mean that it’s racist against white people. That’s… ridiculous. -(Feministe.)[www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/02/20/stuff-white-people-like/] [...]
I don’t think its racist, but I don’t think its “Things White people like.” I think its things White, Liberal, Hipsters like. I don’t see Jeff Foxworthy on here, or Pick up trucks, militant Jesus, the Confederacy, saying “love it or leave it” or things like that.
I understand the point though, its funny, and I think its all in good fun. I enjoy what I’ve read, I just worry if it is missing a few great stereotypes to play on if it is WHITE people.
The good parts:
The site is best when it points to the fetishization and Orientalism of the Other — i.e., studying abroad (which assumes you have $$), Mos Def & Diversity (self-congratulatory), etc.
As others have noted, many of the jokes are aimed at bourgeois White 20-something hipsters. It reminds me of “The Hipster Handbook” (from freewilliamsburg.com).
The bad parts:
In a way it is racist, but not against White People, but against everyone else. Thus black people don’t recycle, East Asians don’t do yoga, and oh…sorry all you people of color, you’re gonna be stuck drinking lead-heavy tap water. And forget about health food — only White people care about their health. (Though yes, I am aware that processed, unhealthy food is cheaper and more readily available in lower-income neighborhoods, and how race/class fits in that mix.)
I didn’t appreciate the snide remark about “Womyns Studies” and “Gender Studies”. This insinuates that feminism (and LGBT activism) is a trivial luxury for White women (a right-wing canard), and that everyone else is sexist and patriarchal. Which leads to the stereotypes of African American men as being hypermasculinized and misogynist and of Latino male machismo.
For the record, I’m white, lower-middle class. I didn’t mind being made fun of — and yes a lot of those stereotypes applied to me. I don’t feel “hurt” by them. The funny parts are pretty damned funny.
stuffwhitepeopledontlike.blogspot.com is pretty funny too. the site is only a few days old i believe. more racist observations to come. yipee
i like http://stuffsouthernerslike.wordpress.com/
southerners are more racist heidiman
have you heard of Stuff Asian People Like? http://www.stuffasianpeoplelike.net my friend sent me the link three days ago and now im addicted!
It is a forgone conclusion that half the people who post here will not find SWPL funny.
It pokes fun at earnest self-proclaimed progressives who think they are above simplifying and reducing the complex of humanity into stereotypes but are so totally involved in groupthink that they use abstract and inelegant jargon and acronyms probably to show some kind of allegiance to their ilk rather than get some real-ass convos going.
Now that clander guy, he can write.