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Visual Rhetoric - Visual Culture - Pedagogy
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The Stuff White People Like problem
Submitted by mkhaupt on Thu, 2008-02-21 12:29
The person pictured below is Christian Lander, one of the authors of the much-discussed blog, Stuff White People Like.
What I do like about what Lander has done with his most recent entry, as well as the recycling entry is that he has made himself complicit with the white people he's lampooning by making himself the visual representation of the problem he's diagnosing (as opposed to using the stock images he usually utilizes). Also of note is the Star of David on Lander's t-shirt in the recycling picture. If you read the comments on the Sarah Silverman entry, you'll see that there is some (uncomfortable) debate as to whether Jewish people are technically white (ouch, I know). He seems to be answering that question by posing in that t-shirt (outside of a Whole Foods, natch) for the recycling entry. Maybe this Lander kid is smarter than I thought. Tags:
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Some love the blog, some find it offensive. I fall into the latter category because I think to write about "Stuff White People Like" (which feels grammatically wrong somehow), even satirically, is to exclude non-whites from the things that the titular white people like, like recycling, pricey sandwiches, dogs, kitchen gadgets, and Mos Def (?). While I admire the project of poking fun at the Gen X and Y Brooklyn- and Echo Park-dwelling hipsterati who have more money than actual sense, I do think it's a bit irresponsible to present such a limited view of whiteness and declare it ALL whiteness. What does it mean to the white person who rejects the Prius or can't afford a $300 Kitchenaid waffle iron (or never learned to ride a bicycle as a kid because their family couldn't afford one)? What about the person of color who practices alternative medicine, or lives by the water? Or the white woman who loathed Juno? 
Comments
'white' as intentionally selective
I always thought the site's strongest point was in the choice to limit its consideration of 'whiteness' to one particular well-intentioned consumer-progressive subset of the population that has grown increasingly smug since the late sixties as they've swung toward the consumer side. With such recurring lines stating if you don't meet such-and-such criteria then you 'must be the wrong kind of white person' it seems like the argument that the idea of race itself is the ultimate subject of his lampoons here is pretty well supported. Race as a method of classification of tastes is fraught with this same reductive tendency that he reiterates for satirical purposes; that's the essence of the joke for me, not the flipping of the script but laughing at the very notion of the script. But a review of the comments on the page would suggest many people aren't waiting for the punchline before they start hollering. Which is about as amusing as anything can be at the meta- level. Smirk smirk.
I actually love this site,
I actually love this site, and I think that it also gives a meaningful social commentary. White people never feel that they are in the minority, and poking fun at typically "white" things can point out the oddities that come from the current white culture. "White" tends to be the "norm" in many people's minds, but by pointing out some of the ridiculousness of the things that white people do, it shows that white people are merely a culture, just as other races and groups are. It gives stereotypes to the group that seems to avoid them normally. If the people reading the blog don't fit in, it further shows how ridiculous stereotypes are, as no one can be defined only by their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
yes and no
"I think to write about "Stuff White People Like" (which feels grammatically wrong somehow), even satirically, is to exclude non-whites from the things that the titular white people like."
I agree that this is a danger, but I also see some potential. For white people who don't think that their whiteness matters in their lives-- who think that they are "just normal"-- this might show how "white" is also a constructed category of identity.
As far as the site overall, I'm ambivalent. But I'm paying attention.