It’s making fun of the way people exoticize non-white cultures by reversing the situation and pretending that mainstream (ie, majority white) culture is exotic and difficult to understand.
I didn’t do an official tally, but I love that website. I am apparently extremely white. Well, I don’t have a moleskin journal and a host of Apple products. But I’m pretty white. 
I hate that site. It’s got nothing to do with being white. It’s more like stuff left wing middle class metropolitan poseurs like, and almost nothing to do with race.
I have-
Coffee
Tea
Dogs
T shirts
Music piracy (well I used to anyway, back in the napster days)
Facebook
America
Black music that black people don’t listen to anymore
Conan O’Brien
This is kind of stupid, because I’m pretty “white”. Guess I’m just not a white douchebag, which is what most of the list actually seems to describe.
That’s sort of IS the point of the site. It’s stuff that typically educated, upper-middle class pretentous people pretend they are really into.
Oh, for fuck’s sake,
does not equal
!
That kind of stuff just makes me want to pull out the rolleye smiley. There’s nothing wrong with being either left wing, middle class or metropolitan - on the fucking contrary, in my book. *Stereotypes aren’t evil. *That list is just a cheap rhetorical trick. Listing a number of characteristics implies that having some or all of those characteristic makes you belong to a stereotype which in turn puts those characteristics in a negative light - just by *being on a list.
*
Asian girls, veganism, Manhattan and Barack Obama are just cool things, and anyone who puts them on a list can fuck right off.
I would agree but think of it as a funny way of mildy ridiculing “left wing middle class metropolitan poseurs.”
Glad to say my “left wing middle class metro poseur-ness” rounds off to zero.
15/134
Yeah it’s a stupid site.
I’m wonderbread white. Also, European. So it might be true for Europeans as well. Only we’d change “threatening to move to Canada” with “moving to the USA”. Yes, weird, but that is the social cultural translation.
Well, your loss, really. You’re missing out on all the cool things on that list!
I’m a left wing (upper) middle class New Yorker, so shockingly enough, I’ve got 57 flavors on my list.
I am also not a poseur. I’m the real deal.
Lots of stuff I didn’t know what it was. I’d do better on a ‘stuff prematurely culturally irrelevant white people like.’
I am so fucking white, according to that list, that it’s not even funny. I’m, like, Wayne Brady white.
#134 The TED Conference
#132 Picking Their Own Fruit
#130 Ray-Ban Wayfarers
#129 Banksy
#127 Where the Wild Things Are
#119 Sea Salt
#112 Hummus
#109 The Onion
#103 Sweaters
#102 Children’s Games as Adults
#97 Scarves
#94 Free Healthcare
#87 Outdoor Performance Clothes
#79 Modern Furniture
#77 Musical Comedy
#75 Threatening to Move to Canada
#72 Study Abroad
#64 Recycling
#54 Kitchen Gadgets
#53 Dogs
#52 Sarah Silverman
#40 Apple Products
#36 Breakfast Places
#35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report
#34 Architecture
#29 80s Night
#25 David Sedaris
#19 Traveling
#17 Hating their Parents
#16 Gifted Children
#13 Tea
#12 Non-Profit Organizations
#8 Barack Obama
#7 Diversity
#5 Farmer’s Markets
34 ( I’m counting Moving to Canada and Free health care as .5 each)
Wouldn’t surprise me that the number was high since I’m basically translucent but none of this seems particularly race based to me.
-
#132 Picking Their Own Fruit - Picking my own means I’m in the countryside. I like that.
- #131 Conan O’Brien - He’s kinda funny.
- #128 Camping - These days it’s a bit troublesome, but when I was younger, yeah.
- #112 Hummus - Tastes good, doesn’t it? Non-whites don’t like it?
- #109 The Onion - Funny.
- #107 Self Aware Hip Hop References - It’s fun to say them, and fun to hear them.
- #103 Sweaters - It’s cold.
- #99 Grammar - Interesting.
- #97 Scarves - keep a neck warm.
- #94 Free Healthcare - I would like it, if it existed. Where do people pay nothing for HC?
- #93 Music Piracy - Changed the world for the better (open a pit thread if you must).
- #92 Book Deals - Why not?
- #90 Dinner Parties - Someone hates parties with food and conversation?
- #78 Multilingual Children - More power to them.
- #55 Apologies - Need more.
- #54 Kitchen Gadgets - Love gadgets, if they do what they are supposed to.
- #51 Living by the Water - I can’t think of any defense. This makes me white I guess.
- #37 Renovations - Within reason.
- #36 Breakfast Places - Feed me.
- #35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report - Can be funny.
- #24 Wine - Yes, I like to whine.
- #18 Awareness - Don’t know what this means but it sounds important.
- #15 Yoga - Just try it.
- #13 Tea - I’m Australian. I was drinking tea from mum’s nipples.
- #11 Asian Girls - Yes, but not more than any other girls.
Issues of value aside, I bet the number of people who like Netflix because they can rent Donkey Punch III: Donkeypunching the Human Centipede without feeling embarrassed at the video store outnumbers the people who see it as their secret independent distribution channel 4:1
Well on the one hand, these are a few of my favorite things:
- America
- Pea Coats
- The Onion
- Sweaters
- Grammar
- The Ivy League
- Scarves
- New Balance Shoes
- Free Healthcare
- San Francisco
- Musical Comedy
- Sushi
- The Colbert Report
- Traveling
- Tea
- Barack Obama
But on the other hand, these are some things I actively dislike:
- Conan O’Brien
- Ray-Ban Wayfarers
- Mad Men
- Ugly Sweater Parties
- Self-aware hip-hop references
- Music Piracy
- Shorts
- The Wire
- Threatening to move to Canada
- Divorce
- Kitchen Gadgets
- Sarah Silverman
- Whole Foods
- Public Radio
- Indie music
- Arrested Development
- Marijuana
- Not having a T.V.
- Wine
- Microbreweries
- Organic Food
- Coffee
I guess that makes me not as white as I appear.
I got
26 “Yes I like”
31 “I have an opinion & it’s … Meh”
41 “No I don’t like”
20 “Up to that moment I had never formed an opinion one way or the other”
16 “I’ve never heard of that and have no clue what they’re talking about.”
I’m (AFAIK) ethnically purebred white, but apparently not part of whatever crazy-ass culture they think white people are part of.
A list of things white people like would be fine in and of itself. But the commentary is horribly racist. Because it is only talking about a small subset of white people, and doing so derogatorily, it’s saying crap about a minority. And unlike ethnic comedians who make fun of their own ethnicity, there’s no actual attempt at humor in any of it. I seriously have no trouble believing that this is a real racist. And when you cross that line, it’s no longer funny.
When, oh when, will the upper middle class pretentious hipsters of America catch a break? 