Stuff Non-white People Don't Like

A lot of people sent me links to Stuff White People Like when it first hit the wind, and, not having anything productive to say and not wanting to be a killjoy, I just plain didn't say anything about it.

But it made me uncomfortable.

I was too busy to tease out why, but Double Consciousness has done the job for me here.

The problem with StuffWhitePeoleLike.com (or SWPL) is that there is actually nothing that offensive (all though some white people have thought it that) or thought provoking within the site. The reason for this is obvious, as whites are the majority in the country that have never experienced racial discrimination, institutionalized or socially. Because of this a site such as SWPL, which purports to "make fun of" white culture, can become profitable and can garner a large book deal from a major publisher.

Whiteness is essentially an invisible and often overlooked (in mainstream culture) factor within the United States and because of this most whites are blind to their own privilege as it is never talked about all that much.

In fact, even when people of color want to bring up certain offensive characteristics of white culture, such as naming mascots after Native Americans, and try to show them how offensive certain aspects are; white people can actually shrug all of that aside and laugh it off. After all, white folks are the dominant ones in society and have all of the advantages that have been built up over hundreds of years of racial preference toward whites; so when a group of Native American students name their intermural basketball team "The Fightin' Whites" in order to point out the stupidity of naming a team "The Fighin' Reds" white people find it funny and laugh it off because it is not a real threat to whiteness.

In other words, if you're already on top, and all the media already talks about your strengths and foibles, a site that DIRECTLY addresses your strengths and foibles by racializing them is just more ego-stroke. Also, this site really addresses white, upper-middle class people.

I'm pretty sure if there was a Stuff Asians Like site for upper-middle class Asians, created by an Asian American, or the same for African Americans, or Latinos,  nobody would have a problem with it. And the fact that there isn't such a site is telling.

Comments

[michelle]

actually, there is a "Stuff Educated Black People Like" site. However, it doesn't get as much press as SWPL, which is telling. there are a few "Stuff Asian People Like" sites floating around out there but I don't think they are targeted to upper class asians...at least there weren't any the last time I checked...

[claire]

wow, michelle, could you please provide links?

[michelle]

hi claire,
sure--here's the SEBP site:
http://www.stuffebplike.com/

and several SAP sites:
www.asian-central.com/stuffasianpeoplelike/
stuffasians.blogspot.com/

the tone is more varied than that of SWP...I feel like it swings from the satirical, dry humor like SWP to the defensive to the educational. given that this is coming from minorities who have been and continue to be discriminated against in subtle and not so subtle ways, it's not surprising.

[claire]

wow, thanks for the tips, michelle!

looks like both those blogs (the two asian ones are two different urls for the same blog. the second one was moved to the first one) were created in response to the white site. i wonder if any poc did sites like this BEFORE the stuff white ppl like site? it doesn't seem like a very poc thing to do.

[Cabell]

The one time I commented in the sociology TA office that I never thought SWPL was particularly funny, I got accused of being a humorless overprivileged whitey (by another white person). I saw someone else somewhere talking about how it's basically failed satire, which I think is a similar argument to this one.

[brownstocking]

They definitely came after SWPL. I remember my cousin thinking SEBL was funny, and I thought it was stupid and trite and divisive. Especially when we (blackfolks) started arguing w/each other in comments behind the list. (eyeroll)

We don't need to mimic every dang thing we read!