For this entry, I will be analyzing another blog called "Stuff White People Like" At first glance, the site looks like a harmless critique on the differences in culture between white people and everybody else. To many it may be seen as just this, a way for the blog’s authors to use humorous, and many times truthful, insight into American Culture and ways. This can be problematic, though. By saying that all white people like something or that all white people act a certain way it creates vast generalizations about the way people should or should not act along racial lines. In certain situations could this blog create new truths for people reading it, and further create racial divides.
Stuff White People Like was created on a whim by a white, Canadian man named Christian Lander in 2008. Since its inception, it has gained a huge following and it has had over 70 million hits in its span on the internet. Its Facebook page has 112,000 “likes” The author first made the site up as a joke between him and a friend, and it soon grew in popularity. Now along with the website he has released two books, Stuff White People Like and Whiter Shades of Pale: Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, From Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrew”. Additionally, he travels around the United States giving interviews or talking about his blog and his books. By humorously categorizing people along racial lines, Lander is generating a substantial profit. Is his intent malicious? I do not believe so and he even acknowledges the fact that he is making fun of himself. “This site pokes fun at ME. That’s why I use pictures of myself. Those aren’t taken out of irony. This is the shit that I do. I need to call myself out for all of the stupid shit that I take for granted. Why do I need $300 bike rims? why is a $10 sandwich considered normal?” But just because he is making fun of himself doesn’t mean that these generalized racial categorizations are acceptable.
Lander also states he intends to extend "the broad brush of stereotypes on white people." While I understand that he feels that this is bringing to attention the fact that white people face less stereotyping as other races and ethnicities, we should be trying to break down the stereotypes, not furthering them. Some claim that Lander is not trying to group all whites together, but rather he is ironically making fun of elitist neo-liberals who believe they are “above race”. In his LA Times article, Gregory Rodriguez believes that the blog is commenting on a sociological trend of whites becoming minorities in non-Anglo cities. Based on this belief, he thinks that the blog reduces racial issues because these new white “minorities” will be able to sympathize with non-white minorities and consequently negotiate their relationships with them. Rodriguez's argument is limited, because even if whites are less of a majority, white privilege remains a strong force in society and isn’t going to stop with the beginnings of a demographic shift and a blog that comically talks about it.
Though the blog satirically critiques people who are not usually subject to this type of scrutiny, it remains problematic. If people who are reading don’t fully understand the satire, then it runs the risk of creating common-sense for readers about characterizations of races. In a 2008 NPR segment about the website, people excitedly called in that they too “love coffee” and that the blog “hit the nail on the head about society!” proving that readers don’t fully understand the satirical nature.
Additionally, the popularity of the blog has inspired people to create blogs upon blogs of Stuff [insert any race or ethnicity] People Like. These subsequent blogs do not have the satirical element, but instead just broadly stereotype people and unnecessarily enhance racial categories. One especially troubling blog, Stuff Educated Black People Like, creates the assumption that the majority of black people are uneducated and that the educated black people are inferior.
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| Stuff Black People Like |
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| Stuff Asian People Like |
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| Stuff Jewish People Like |
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| Stuff Latinos Like |
"Stuff White People Like" does not go far enough in its analysis of society. If it added an outright description of the hypocrisy of the white people that Lander makes fun of, it would be a more credible source of social commentary. Until society can fully understand websites such as "Stuff White People Like", they are doing more harm than good.
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