I really honestly believe that the number of people who are truly “liking” the things on this list just to appear “cool” is extremely small. I think the vast majority of the people, white and otherwise, who enjoy the things on that stupid list actually genuinely like them.
I’ll agree with you without a doubt for people who score up to 100 or so. When they score around 130 like it’s a checklist for adherence to a stereotype, I have to call narcissist trying to impress others.
Oh, I’m NOT implying that many people pretend to like things they hate. Teenage white boys who claim to like Judas Priest undoubtedly DO like Judas Priest. Gay guys who claim to like Bette Midler undoubtedly DO like Miss M. Black kids who claim to like Tupac undoubtedly DO like him. And so on and so on.
And yet…
Let me use my own life as an illustration. I went to a high school that consisted overwhelmingly of nerdy, intellectual white boys like myself. In that environment, HUGE percentages of us got into such stereotypical things as:
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Monty Python
Quoting “Saturday Night Live” sketches
JRR Tolkien
Yes
I got heavily into almost all the stereotypical things myself (except for Tolkien, who bored me).
Now, was I a phony who only PRETENDED to like Monty Python to fit in with my peers? No, not at all (though, even then, I noticed that sometimes they made whole 30 minute episodes with NOTHING funny in them). Was I only PRETENDING to like Yes? No, not at all (though, even then, I noticed that their lyrics made no sense and that their bad songs went on for an eternity).
But while I wasn’t merely pretending to like the stuff my peers liked, it’s fair to say that:
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Music and pop culture were what my peers and I used to identify ourselves and each other
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We sort of looked down on anyone who didn’t appreciate what we did.
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We MIGHT have liked all kinds of other genres if we’d explored them, but we started exploring Tolkien, prog-rock, “SNL,” etc. because the other people we identified with liked them.
So, am I saying a liberal yuppie DOESN’T really like expensive exotic coffees? That he doesn’t REALLY like jazz? That he doesn’t REALLY like the cuisines he samples? No- but I AM saying the yuppie initially pursued those things in PART because the people he identifies with liked them. And after learning to like those things, he started looking at them as totems of his “tribe” (which meant he started to look down on people who preferred Folger’s, Celine Dion and no-name appliances from Target).
#133 The World Cup
#128 Camping
#127 Where the Wild Things Are
#126 Vespa Scooters
#123 Mad Men
#121 Funny or Ironic Tattoos
#120 Taking a Year Off
#119 Sea Salt
#117 Political Prisoners
#116 Black Music that Black People Don’t Listen to Anymore
#115 Promising to Learn a New Language
#114 America
#113 Halloween
#108 Appearing to Enjoy Classical Music
#105 Unpaid Internships
#104 Girls with Bangs
#103 Sweaters
#102 Children’s Games as Adults
#101 Being Offended
#100 Bumper Stickers
#99 Grammar
#98 The Ivy League
#97 Scarves
#96 New Balance Shoes
#94 Free Healthcare
#93 Music Piracy
#92 Book Deals
#91 San Francisco
#88 Having Gay Friends
#84 T-Shirts
#83 Bad Memories of High School
#82 Hating Corporations
#80 The Idea of Soccer
#78 Multilingual Children
#77 Musical Comedy
#75 Threatening to Move to Canada
#73 Gentrification
#72 Study Abroad
#71 Being the only white person around
#65 Co-Ed Sports
#64 Recycling
#60 Toyota Prius
#59 Natural Medicine
#58 Japan
#57 Juno
#56 Lawyers
#55 Apologies
#53 Dogs
#50 Irony
#49 Vintage
#43 Plays
#39 Netflix
#38 Arrested Development
#37 Renovations
#36 Breakfast Places
#34 Architecture
#33 Marijuana
#28 Not having a TV
#27 Marathons
#26 Manhattan (now Brooklyn too!)
#25 David Sedaris
#19 Traveling
#18 Awareness
#17 Hating their Parents
#16 Gifted Children
#15 Yoga
#14 Having Black Friends
#12 Non-Profit Organizations
#10 Wes Anderson Movies
#9 Making you feel bad about not going outside
#8 Barack Obama
#7 Diversity
#4 Assists
#3 Film Festivals
#2 Religions their parents don’t belong to
#1 Coffee