Everyone and their dog has heard about the blog turned bestseller "Stuff White People Like". When I first started reading it I thought it was pretty funny and pretty dead on, this Christian Lander spotted trends among white people (specifically white students ages 18 to 29, but there is a little give and take on those numbers) and pointed out how unoriginal it was, how it was typical for that type of person to like that, etc. It was clever and funny with just enough cynicism for everyone to enjoy and what made it even better was that no one had really called white people out on this stuff. We all sort of knew but no one had straight up said, "you like the same things but you all think you are original." I enjoyed the blog periodically until the comparisons started. When I read certain posts that were about things I liked I laughed and brushed it aside but when people started sending me links over e-mail and facebook, a new one every day, I started to lose it. At first I tried to justify why I liked which ever thing it was, but that just dug me in further. "I like electronica because it is like the modern version of 80's synth that I like, like Depeche Mode." "You know 80's music is also a post on there!" "AUUUGHHHHH!" Then I started denying that I liked those things at all. "I actually don't like Wes Anderson movies, they are pretentious and stupid, I mean the Royal Tenenbaums was ok..." Then I finally realized that pretending I didn't like these things so I appeared original was the worst thing yet. Christian Lander should write a post about that! "Pretending you don't like stuff on this blog to seem original" Finally my brother Travis brought it up in conversation, he mentioned how many of those posts applied to me and i admitted to it, then he asked me "doesn't that make you want to be different?" Well, if I liked these things because they were trendy, yeah I would. But because I like these "white people" things just because I do, the answer is no. I may be a living representation of Christian Lander's blog/book but when the things he lists are no longer cool I will still like them and maybe that is what makes me different.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Stereotyped
Everyone and their dog has heard about the blog turned bestseller "Stuff White People Like". When I first started reading it I thought it was pretty funny and pretty dead on, this Christian Lander spotted trends among white people (specifically white students ages 18 to 29, but there is a little give and take on those numbers) and pointed out how unoriginal it was, how it was typical for that type of person to like that, etc. It was clever and funny with just enough cynicism for everyone to enjoy and what made it even better was that no one had really called white people out on this stuff. We all sort of knew but no one had straight up said, "you like the same things but you all think you are original." I enjoyed the blog periodically until the comparisons started. When I read certain posts that were about things I liked I laughed and brushed it aside but when people started sending me links over e-mail and facebook, a new one every day, I started to lose it. At first I tried to justify why I liked which ever thing it was, but that just dug me in further. "I like electronica because it is like the modern version of 80's synth that I like, like Depeche Mode." "You know 80's music is also a post on there!" "AUUUGHHHHH!" Then I started denying that I liked those things at all. "I actually don't like Wes Anderson movies, they are pretentious and stupid, I mean the Royal Tenenbaums was ok..." Then I finally realized that pretending I didn't like these things so I appeared original was the worst thing yet. Christian Lander should write a post about that! "Pretending you don't like stuff on this blog to seem original" Finally my brother Travis brought it up in conversation, he mentioned how many of those posts applied to me and i admitted to it, then he asked me "doesn't that make you want to be different?" Well, if I liked these things because they were trendy, yeah I would. But because I like these "white people" things just because I do, the answer is no. I may be a living representation of Christian Lander's blog/book but when the things he lists are no longer cool I will still like them and maybe that is what makes me different.
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2 comments:
yes yes!
you like what you like whether or not it is cool.
I will still be wearing skinny pants in 5 years.
Will Peaches Geldof? or Cory Kennedy?
who cares.
like what you like not what you think you should like in order to be cool.
Jackson! I found a blog called "sh&! black people hate". It's incredibly crass but insanely funny... most of the time. I think you would enjoy it.
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