The Tragic Blow to Hipster-dom
When I first heard about it, I didn't think it was actually real. When I first visited, I just thought it was someone's inside-joke pet project. Finally, after reading extensively, I realized it was satire at its finest, a well-dispensed dose of social criticism for the dominant and unmistakable culture of our day.
What exactly is it?
Why, it's a blog devoted to chronicling the desires of white people, of course!
Now, before you gasp too haughtily or throw down the racist card, pause for a moment. Have you ever wondered why every time you encounter a white person on the sidewalk their glance avoids direct eye contact as their ears bloom white from the grandeur of their iPod headphones? Or that nearly every Metro bus comprised of a majority of white people is suffocatingly silent? Or how it is always white folks that threaten to move to Canada, drink expensive bottles of water from Fiji, and reap from the benefits of gentrification?
Well, you're not alone. I've noticed, you've noticed...and yes, the general world has taken notice. There is a persnickety pretentiousness that is underwriting the rules to the quirky maxims, social norms, and behaviors to our collective white culture. For decades, these unwritten rules pass almost congenitally from one generation to the next. But now, that which is whispered in secret amongst the posh living rooms of our suburbian existence is now exposed to the light. And trust me, the light hurts.
Ladies and gentlemen (who are white), our manifesto has been penned, our constitution has been created! Let us now go forth, and live our lives with the ultimate reassurance that someone just totally blew our cover on the absolutely shallow 'coolness' of our lifestyle. That someone is Christian Lander, the author and creator of the blog Stuff White People Like.
Stuff White People Like quietly began on January 18th of this year, which, compared to most of the popular blogs out there, is without a question still in its infancy stage. But, since its beginning, the blog has been a fiery source of debate back and forth from all sides of the spectrum. Little is known about the author, but one knows from his writing that he is nothing short of brilliant in delivering a succinct, coy critique of all those individual quirks we whites think are significant pieces of our multi-faceted and complex personalities...but, when we're honest with ourselves, try as hard as we might, we know we're just not that unique.
Consider the words from the movie Fight Club: 'We all grew up with the same television shows. It’s like we all have the same artificial memory implants. We remember almost none of our real childhoods, but we remember everything that happened to sitcom families. We have the same basic goals. We all have the same fears.' Perhaps, then, boiling down a list of the desires, likes, and dislikes of white America isn't a distillation of the dominant culture's true identity. It's not fair, one could say. But, if it isn't an identity, then what the heck is it and where does it come from?
Lander doesn't ever answer this question, and perhaps that is where the reader is left to draw their own conclusions. Perhaps it comes from mass media. Maybe it's a Generation Y thing. Or it could be the precipitate social reality of living in the post-oil, post-modern, post-Christendom era of American history. Every side has a point.
But, what Lander does give us is 'a scientific approach to highlight and explain stuff white people like.' The results of such an approach, he says? 'They are pretty predictable.'
At 103 entries and counting, the blog is always growing, always exposing the fecundity of absurdity in which white culture is often caught taking itself too seriously. The possibilities are endless, with nothing too off-kilter to be minced upon by a critical analysis. My favorites so far on the blog are bumper stickers, scarves, and knowing what's best for poor people.
To be fair, this critique on white culture pertains to only a certain segment of white culture, predominantly, that of the middle-class, twenty-something, college-educated, urban-dwelling folk. (For simplicity's sake, let us call this specific segment 'hipster culture'). For example, my dad doesn't necessarily fit the bill for most of the stuff on the blog's list...he doesn't shop at a grocery co-op, he doesn't like wine, has never seen the Daily Show, and will probably never watch a Wes Anderson film. Yet, my dad's culture isn't one that is out to conform others to fit the mold of his culture...it is a bit more libertarian than that. Hipster culture, though, is, subtly, at its heart a evangelical one. Nay, scratch that thought. Perhaps a better term to describe hipster culture is a viral marketing culture. See, it's not natural for a human brain to develop into full maturity desiring skinny jeans and fair-trade coffee. Rather, these desires come by careful, continual observation over a long period of time (e.g. infancy through adolescence) of other white people who fit into the 'cool' status of the hipster culture. Thus, the hipster gurus bequeath their knowledge of hipster customs, beliefs, and practices to the younger, impressionable proselytes, often through seemingly meaningless activities, such as complaining about their messy faux-hawk or extolling the virtues of fixed gear bicycles. But, if you were to question any hipster as to the hermeneutics of their lifestyle, such as why do you wear the things you wear or do the things you do, their reply would be something like, "I'm no follower, I do my own thing!" (insert other response here: I'm counter-cultural, independent, more authentic, etc. etc.) See, this is exactly why Lander chose to analyze this segment of white culture: it claims its culture's irreducibility so foolhardily and with such ribald zeal that it fails to see that, indeed, it is a culture, one that namely runs on trends (but ssshhh...don't tell them that, they'll get offended).
But I digress. If you haven't already, please check out this blog. You'll love it, hate it, or, especially if you belong to this white culture to which it speaks (myself included), you'll cringe. Why? Because the truth hurts, friends.
I'll conclude with Powell's online review of the upcoming book entitled Stuff White People Like, which will feature unreleased, unpublished analysis of yet even more things that white people like. Enjoy.
What exactly is it?
Why, it's a blog devoted to chronicling the desires of white people, of course!
Now, before you gasp too haughtily or throw down the racist card, pause for a moment. Have you ever wondered why every time you encounter a white person on the sidewalk their glance avoids direct eye contact as their ears bloom white from the grandeur of their iPod headphones? Or that nearly every Metro bus comprised of a majority of white people is suffocatingly silent? Or how it is always white folks that threaten to move to Canada, drink expensive bottles of water from Fiji, and reap from the benefits of gentrification?
Well, you're not alone. I've noticed, you've noticed...and yes, the general world has taken notice. There is a persnickety pretentiousness that is underwriting the rules to the quirky maxims, social norms, and behaviors to our collective white culture. For decades, these unwritten rules pass almost congenitally from one generation to the next. But now, that which is whispered in secret amongst the posh living rooms of our suburbian existence is now exposed to the light. And trust me, the light hurts.
Ladies and gentlemen (who are white), our manifesto has been penned, our constitution has been created! Let us now go forth, and live our lives with the ultimate reassurance that someone just totally blew our cover on the absolutely shallow 'coolness' of our lifestyle. That someone is Christian Lander, the author and creator of the blog Stuff White People Like.
Stuff White People Like quietly began on January 18th of this year, which, compared to most of the popular blogs out there, is without a question still in its infancy stage. But, since its beginning, the blog has been a fiery source of debate back and forth from all sides of the spectrum. Little is known about the author, but one knows from his writing that he is nothing short of brilliant in delivering a succinct, coy critique of all those individual quirks we whites think are significant pieces of our multi-faceted and complex personalities...but, when we're honest with ourselves, try as hard as we might, we know we're just not that unique.
Consider the words from the movie Fight Club: 'We all grew up with the same television shows. It’s like we all have the same artificial memory implants. We remember almost none of our real childhoods, but we remember everything that happened to sitcom families. We have the same basic goals. We all have the same fears.' Perhaps, then, boiling down a list of the desires, likes, and dislikes of white America isn't a distillation of the dominant culture's true identity. It's not fair, one could say. But, if it isn't an identity, then what the heck is it and where does it come from?
Lander doesn't ever answer this question, and perhaps that is where the reader is left to draw their own conclusions. Perhaps it comes from mass media. Maybe it's a Generation Y thing. Or it could be the precipitate social reality of living in the post-oil, post-modern, post-Christendom era of American history. Every side has a point.
But, what Lander does give us is 'a scientific approach to highlight and explain stuff white people like.' The results of such an approach, he says? 'They are pretty predictable.'
At 103 entries and counting, the blog is always growing, always exposing the fecundity of absurdity in which white culture is often caught taking itself too seriously. The possibilities are endless, with nothing too off-kilter to be minced upon by a critical analysis. My favorites so far on the blog are bumper stickers, scarves, and knowing what's best for poor people.
To be fair, this critique on white culture pertains to only a certain segment of white culture, predominantly, that of the middle-class, twenty-something, college-educated, urban-dwelling folk. (For simplicity's sake, let us call this specific segment 'hipster culture'). For example, my dad doesn't necessarily fit the bill for most of the stuff on the blog's list...he doesn't shop at a grocery co-op, he doesn't like wine, has never seen the Daily Show, and will probably never watch a Wes Anderson film. Yet, my dad's culture isn't one that is out to conform others to fit the mold of his culture...it is a bit more libertarian than that. Hipster culture, though, is, subtly, at its heart a evangelical one. Nay, scratch that thought. Perhaps a better term to describe hipster culture is a viral marketing culture. See, it's not natural for a human brain to develop into full maturity desiring skinny jeans and fair-trade coffee. Rather, these desires come by careful, continual observation over a long period of time (e.g. infancy through adolescence) of other white people who fit into the 'cool' status of the hipster culture. Thus, the hipster gurus bequeath their knowledge of hipster customs, beliefs, and practices to the younger, impressionable proselytes, often through seemingly meaningless activities, such as complaining about their messy faux-hawk or extolling the virtues of fixed gear bicycles. But, if you were to question any hipster as to the hermeneutics of their lifestyle, such as why do you wear the things you wear or do the things you do, their reply would be something like, "I'm no follower, I do my own thing!" (insert other response here: I'm counter-cultural, independent, more authentic, etc. etc.) See, this is exactly why Lander chose to analyze this segment of white culture: it claims its culture's irreducibility so foolhardily and with such ribald zeal that it fails to see that, indeed, it is a culture, one that namely runs on trends (but ssshhh...don't tell them that, they'll get offended).
But I digress. If you haven't already, please check out this blog. You'll love it, hate it, or, especially if you belong to this white culture to which it speaks (myself included), you'll cringe. Why? Because the truth hurts, friends.
I'll conclude with Powell's online review of the upcoming book entitled Stuff White People Like, which will feature unreleased, unpublished analysis of yet even more things that white people like. Enjoy.
They love nothing better than sipping free-trade gourmet coffee, leafing through the Sunday "New York Times," and listening to David Sedaris on NPR (ideally all at the same time). Apple products, indie music, food co-ops, and vintage T-shirts make them weak in the knees.They believe they're unique, yet somehow they're all exactly the same, talking about how they "get" Sarah Silverman's "subversive" comedy and Wes Anderson's "droll" films. They're also down with diversity and up on all the best microbrews, breakfast spots, foreign cinema, and authentic sushi. They're organic, ironic, and do not own TVs.
You know who they are: They're white people. And they're here, and you're gonna have to deal. Fortunately, here's a book that investigates, explains, and offers advice for finding social success with the Caucasian persuasion. So kick back on your IKEA couch and lose yourself in the ultimate guide to the unbearable whiteness of being.
posted by Steve Pratt at 9:43 PM
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