SWPL backlash
So, I posted a link to that blog - “Stuff White People Like.” It’s a comedy blog that pokes fun at white culture with articles about things that white people love, like expensive coffee, traveling in Europe, etc. I think that most people who read my blog would understand why I would post it. I think it’s funny, silly, and it does have some importance, but it’s not necessarily going to have any real effect on actual race relations. It’s just fun, not to be taken seriously at all.

Samhita Mukhopadhyay is one of the writers at feministing.com, one of my favorite blogs. More so than the other writers there, she posts deep critical analyses on race relations. She posted her (awesome) opinion about the SWPL blog, and just as expected, most of her (mostly white) readers had negative things to say about it.

The following is what happens when I react to a white-dominated race-related comment thread at 5 AM, and is the reason I'm writing this post right now. In other words, the following is my response to angry white peoples' response to Samhita Mukhopadhyay's response to some guy's response to white culture, at 5 AM.

This is what I said:

“the value that i see in that blog is to point out to white people that they have a culture. it is a HUGE problem in this country that most white people see their culture as the default culture, and therefore don’t think of it as a culture, but they see other non-white cultures as cultures because they are “ethnic.” this is the same way that whiteness works in general. white people don’t like hearing told that they are white. they see themselves as the default, the norm, as non-racial, as just “regular.” the value of this blog is to point out to people that just like black people, just like mexican people, they are subject to cultural sillyness that they have never questioned, that they see as the norm, as the default. this blog forces people within that privileged society that there are people outside of it who are able to analyze it, who are able to see that their culture is in fact a culture, it is not just the way people are born, and it is not somehow better than others. it is subject to analysis just like the “ethinic” cultures that privileged whites like to analyze. (a thought: documented cultural analysis probably exists mostly in the academic arena, dominated by privileged whites.)

putting big shiny rims and too many speakers on a cadillac is just as stupid as buying a 5,000 bike that you are only going to use for fun, not for transportation.it is a culturally influenced decision, it is a silly societal habit that people have to impress others, to impress themselves, to feel validated. too many white people think that they don’t do this....”why do poor black people spend their money on such useless shit?” without realizing that remodeling your kitchen is just as useless. this blog forces white people to see themselves externally, to show them that not everybody is like them and not everybody should be like them, to show them that they are, indeed, subject to culture and that they do fall for the same sillyness that others do.

and if you think that this blog is racist, you have no idea what racism in the US means. the fact that i’m brown ruins my life EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY, i am not sorry that you felt a little embarrassed by a joke article on a joke website.

also, to those who are saying that this website is generalizing and that not all white people are like that, you are missing the point of the blog. the point of the blog is not to talk about all white people.

i concede that the following may be a bit cynical, but im saying it anyways: it is very likely that the amount of racial “generalizing” that white people subconsciously do on an everyday basis overwhelmingly trumps any amount of generalizing you might think that blog does.

www.soda.can.com”


Links:

Feministing.com, a radical feminist blog, but not-so-radical in their politics in general: http://www.feministing.com

Stuff White People Like, a comedy blog poking fun at white culture: http://www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

and here is a "complete list" (so far) of things that white people like: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

Samhita's post about it, which includes the replies that pissed me off, as well as my own comment (which you just read): http://feministing.com/archives/008986.html