« Merkley endorses Obama, Novick endorses ??? | Main | We Don't Want To - and You Can't Make Us »

February 26, 2008

Stuff White People Like - the blog

Now see, this is why I LOVE listening to NPR's Talk of the Nation during my lunch breaks.

One of today's segments featured the creator and author of the blog Stuff White People Like. Part observation on so-called White Privilege, part commentary on white culture, part (mostly!) self-depricating humor, this blog is a riot to read!!

I'll admit that when they first mentioned what the next segment was going to be about I copped the tiniest of attitudes. While I readily agree that huge swaths of white society in this nation fit the description of "White Privilege," I've known too many white families living in abject poverty to fall for the fiction that all white folk have it easier than all (insert skin color) folk do. But I kept listening and was quickly disabused of my ass-u-mption that the author was non-caucasian. So now they definitely had my curiosity piqued and it quickly became very clear that the blog is equal parts serious observations and belly-laugh self-deprication. And what is almost all humor based on if not serious observations couched in humorous terms? And besides, the author made it very clear upfront that he is really targeting a specific subset of white culture that rarily gets made fun of. Let's just say that if you wear Birkenstocks and recycle your empty bottled water bottles... well... you're in the bull's eye. Which is all the more funny because that's the very subset which tries so friggin' hard to be all things to all people without stepping on anyone's toes in the process.

You gotta click on the link above and check it out for yourselves. It's definitely one of those "one-on-one" experiences where there is nobody to posture for and the computer monitor can't read your mind anyway! But I'll toss out a few very brief teaser examples here.

#67 Standing Still at Concerts. ROFL - that is totally me! But in my defense, everyone knows that straight white guys can't dance. I mean c'mon! ;-)

#70 Difficult Breakups.

Prior to engaging in divorce (#66), most white people train for it by engaging in a series of long term relationships that end very poorly.

You mean that not everyone is as fucked up as we are??? Tell me it ain't so!! My God, that's the story of the first nearly 40 years of my life.

#54 Kitchen Gadgets. Guilty as charged!! I love to cook tasty stuff and kitchen gadgets just come with the territory... right??? LOL

#51 Living by Water. No shit! When was the last time you saw anyone besides wealthy white folk living in beach-side, river-side or lake-side mansions? What the hell is our obsession with living by water, anyway?

#38 Arrested Developement. I LOVED that show. Seriously! I still don't understand why it was yanked.

#16 Gifted Children.

White people love “gifted” children, do you know why? Because an astounding 100% of their kids are gifted! Isn’t that amazing?

I’m pretty sure the last non-gifted white child was born in 1962 in Reseda, CA. Since then, it’s been a pretty sweet run.

Ouch!! You know he's right!

#8 Barak Obama. Hey!!!

;-)

Posted by Kevin at February 26, 2008 01:07 PM