In the comments to a previous post, Tyson Aschliman reminded me about Christine Scheller’s suggestion that I check out the new blog Stuff White People Like. I meant to reply to her on that awhile back but got distracted. I’m sorry, Christine.
I had heard about Stuff White People Like (SWPL) earlier this year through TheRoot.com and another interesting blog called Racialicious. At the time, I wondered whether or not I should blog about SWPL. I decided not to because, while I found it funny, I wasn’t sure whether I was laughing with my white brothers and sisters or at them. Also, I realized that I like many of the same things that are supposedly the primary domain of white folk (e.g., #44 Public Radio, #40 Apple Products, #64 Recycling). Does this make me “too white” or “not black enough”? 🙂
I may be overreacting about all of this, but I wonder what your thoughts are. Is SWPL a harmless site that’s good for a few laughs? A subversively instructive site that uses satire to help further our understanding of racial and cultural differences? Or, like that Root.com essay suggests, is it just the latest humor-clad gimmick exploiting our differences for one individual’s selfish gain (the guy got a nifty book deal out of this thing)? More importantly, does it help or hurt the cause of true racial reconciliation?
I don’t want to come across as a spoilsport. Frankly, I think many of the SWPL entries are hilarious. And I believe it’s helpful to use humor in our discussion of racial issues. (Heck, I attempted to do that in my book.) But is there enough that’s redemptive in the SWPL approach to make it something that’s healthy and productive, and not just a slow-acting poison for the mind and heart that will ultimately make us more cynical?
I take it as a brilliant and funny “subversively instructive site that uses satire to help further our understanding of racial and cultural differences,” as you offer. Sometimes I find we all take ourselves a little too seriously, and this is a nice change of pace.
However, I HAVE found myself wondering, since my discovery of the site in question, whether I would be more offended if I didn’t know it was another white man who fathered this gimmick. After wondering at that a little, I in turn concluded it would be no less funny if it was Chris Rock who was rattling off similar wit regarding NewBalance, Scarves, and Rugby from behind a microphone… only in the SWPL forum (rather than in the stand-up comedy forum), in the way it is presented, it really does cause me to think beyond the humor of the punch lines.
The genius in this, I feel, is the undertone (usually not very subtle), that all the white person really wants is to be liked, honored, and to feel superior among his fellow whites. And the whole thing is written as a sort of “how-to” for non-whites, satirically suggesting that really all non-whites want to get “in” with the “whites.” I see it as a side-splitting gut-check– a self-admission of the foolishness of the notion of racial supremacy… That (as Orwell would put it) whites believe in equality, but they just feel whites are “more equal” than the others– an often more subtle undertone among the “enlightened white elites.”
In general, humor is a knife-edge. On the one hand, it can soften us up and open our hearts just enough to make us ready for hard truth. On the other hand, it can just end up being self-serving and kind of pointless if there’s no partner with serious themes. So. Have you considered becoming that partner? : )
B”H
Hi guys,
Hmm, I don’t know about SWPL. I remember visiting that site like 6 months or more ago and although I found some of it funny. It was not enough in either substance or volume to cause me to return or recommend it to others.
Along these same lines Brother Ed, I would like to take up this theme of humor as a tool in current race relations. Over at my site I am just now posting this question in a slightly different context. Check it out and let me know of any thoughts or reactions.
I think that humor is often a great tool to use in current race relations. When I visited the SWPL site I was torn in my reaction as to whether the material was funny or mean-spirited. In some ways it reminded me of The Onion, the satirical newspaper that pokes fun at today’s news from a left-leaning perspective. All too often I find myself cringing rather than laughing due to the sardonic nature of the materials. I don’t think this type of approach is helpful in a arena where negative carricatures have all too long been held as real in the subconscious minds of the masses.
Blessings,
Shlomo
I skimmed the site and thought some of it was funny, and some wasn’t really all that clever. I think most people would realize that most of this stuff is a joke and not be offended. I mean, some of it applied to me and some stuff didn’t. Much of it seemed to make fun of liberal elitist culture, which I don’t consider myself to be a part of for the most part.
I think humor can be useful in that it can allow us to approach some subjects that would otherwise be too threatening. But it also can be hurtful and you have to be very wise in using it. Probably much better to make fun of yourself rather than others.
B”H
Hey Judy,
Glad to see that you are still here, hanging out in the ‘hood. Thanks for participating here with us, we need you and a host of others.
Peace,
Shlomo
I wonder if a blog called “stuff black people like” would be equally as “funny and acceptable”. I think it is divisive. I am a white woman raising two white boys in a racially diverse community. The schools they go to are predominantly black. Twice this week my son has been called the “N” word, by black boys. Can someone here tell me what that is about? I know the black community is divided on the use of that word. From my understanding the side that uses it defends it’s use by saying it is a culturally acceptable term of endearment for a black brother. If that is the case why then is it Ok to use it as a derogatory term spewed at a white kid?
Ed, I love your blog and I love what you are trying to do, but as a white Christian family in a predominantly black neighborhood it is getting increasingly hard to reconcile to a people who don’t want to be reconciled. Do black people want to be truly reconciled (I am not including all peoples in this statement). You had talked about Rev. Wright and his sermons, again they are divisive and hurtful. They do not talk of the love of Christ and the mercy and grace He extends to us moment by moment. I hear a pastor keeping his people in bondage to hate, rather than freedom in the love, grace and mercy of Christ. I wonder what would be said of a white pastor spewing that kind of hatred toward the black community and the government? Would that be applauded or would he be labeled a racist?
I have been told “how it’s done in the hood” by black Christians in my neighborhood. Why are they living according to the hood? Where is Scripture? I know this is not only a black believer issue, whites are just as guilty. Pray that my heart would not harden, pray that i would continue on in the love and mercy of Christ, pray that my boys would continue to choose their friends by their character. They are being taught racism by the black kids they encounter all day at school, they way they are treated and the comments that are made to them because they are white.
Is the message of reconciliation being preached in the black church? Can you be reconciled to a people, person who doesn’t want reconciliation? or doesn’t know the other side wants reconciliation?
I am sorry I went off on this tangent Ed, but I don’t find the SWPL funny and I have a wicked sense of humor!
dce-
Glad to have you on the journey. . . I would recommend looking at a recent post on 17seeds.com blog in which the author (Linda is African American) has 2 entries that might be helpful. One is the link to Dr. Skinner’s website and outline of principles of reconciliation. The other is a situation in which whites and blacks had a chance to ask eachother questions that blew up.
The reality is that often when one recognizes that he/she is called or prepared to engage in reconciliation, those with whom this is needed are not ready. So in Miroslav Volf’s metaphor, we we open our arms ready to embrace another and then head toward them, we are not always a welcome sight! (In my experience you effectively get kicked in the shins at times – “what are you trying to do?!!”) Our intentions are not always clear, our approach often off-track.
It is really important that you have a few closely developing friendships to unpack your experience – and a couple of mentor that are further down the road than you. Having mentors both of your race and across the divide is critical here!!
Ed-
On the topic of SWPL: I personally love Tyler Perry movies. In fact I especially love going to them at the “black” theater where there is a lot of interaction and laughter. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this or your getting a laugh about the SWPL as long as one is not cultivating a secret mockery about the “other” race. When I was growing up all race jokes were just about that — disparaging blacks, mexicans, asians, et….
If you don’t personally have bonds of affection with specific people in that racial group then I think it is impossible to laugh about these things without furthering one’s own prejudice.
If anything, transparency is almost always better in the quest for true “reconciliation,” I feel in America’s complex and troubles racial landscape. This website is basically innocuous. We are all one humanity and, in a real sense, we don’t acknowledge enough, through our troubled and distorted history, thatwe share a common history. Otherwise, the symbols that push our buttons wouldn’t be able to affect us so deeply. Humor is a key way we acknowledge our broken and complex humanity and commonality in its specificity. It can be a prelude to the type of “confession” and open dialogue we need to have. What we need is a type of national confession/exorcism. We are not their because in order for people to be tranformed, our racial “demons” have to be confronted and faced. (In this regards, the most Christian collective act of this sort was the Truth and Reconcilation Commision in South Africa. The image of Achbp. Tutu torso stretched out on the table sobbing uncontrollably after hearing testimony is permenantly etched in my memory.) Real reconciliation comes at a high price–the price of the cross (the social implications of which most Christians don’t have a clue about)–which we get squemish with.
My favorite comedian of all time was Richard Pryor, who had the ability to skewer white racism and “white” behaviour and have whites and blacks laughing about it. (He did the same for blacks also.) What made him different was his basic Christian, if you will, insight on depravity: all have sinned…and we are all finite, struggling creatures trying to make it this world. Out of this grows real humility, a simple recognition of our common humanity. Pryor would talk about his personal brokeness and failures as much as he would take on white supremicist behavior and black misdoings.
SWPL is really not that clever because it’s not just white people who like those things but pretty much anyone who fits into a certain tax bracket or are a product of a certain education. The writer seems to have selective memory/observations, as theRoot article EG referenced mentioned.
The fact that it is written by a white male in his 20s makes it less funny (beyond the fact that the posts aren’t even that insightfiul).
The use of humor in race relations is a topic I will let wiser minds than mine address.
I think the site’s hilarious. But I enjoy this one even more:
http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/
I think my comment must have got blocked because I had a link in it. I was just saying, I think the site is hilarious. And I was going to direct everyone to an even funnier takeoff site called Stuff Christians Like, but I guess you’ll have to find it for yourselves!
That shouldn’t hurt racial reconciliation. If we can’t laugh at ourselves, we have problems (especially if we’re Christians.) My only problem with the list is that I don’t like most of what’s on there. Except coffee.
Yes, the website can be seen as innocuous by today’s standards (like Saturday Night Live is supposed to be innocuous) but that’s not saying much. I think the points made above referring to Rev. Jeremiah Wright should be kept in mind. What’s the difference between joking about a ‘genetic’ white affinity for NPR and Wright’s assertion (made in his mostly sickening address to the Detroit NAACP) that whites lack the gene for clapping on the two and four beat? And did you hear the (presumably) majority black crowd laughing in agreement?
When considering SWPL, just consider it taking on Rev. Wright as a regular contributor.
Hey, maybe that could be the premise of a great SNL skit!
Honestly, I loved the site. My friends and I are subject to many of the articles, it was creepy, as if this guy had followed us around with his notepad.
If I take myself so seriously that I can’t laugh at myself, then something has gone awry. I think it’s when we become so brittle that a joke will break us, that we need to reflect on how tightly we cling to our ideas. Some people become so bound up in their ideas that they can no longer understand that an idea is continuously chose it. As a white anglo-saxon protestant male, that’s exactly what I have the ability to do–choose my life.
Ahem, continously chosen. (That’s what I meant)
I originally chuckled a bit at the SWPL but it grew old and unrelatable fast for me. It seemed to be a stuff white people with money and alot of ignorance like.
Anyway, in response to the premise I think this site is acceptable because as it always is in society it is acceptable to poke fun at the majority with the power. Whites have not endured the oppression that other minorities have that may provoked a sensitivity to being jested by other racial groups. Is that fair? No, but neither is the fact that as a white person I benefit daily from white privilege and the former oppression of a myriad of other ethnic groups which allowed that.
That what I think about the site. Pretty heavy.
[…] Racialicious post on Ku reminded me of the discussion we were having here a few weeks ago about the blog Stuff White People Like. The questions posed then arise once […]