Stuff White People Don't Like: Supercilious, Faux-Racially Insightful Humor Blogs

Stuff White People Like: White people like creative writing, ha ha! Vintage clothing, ho ho! Girls with bangs, he he! Yuk yuk, it's funny because we're so lame! The blog is ostensibly written as if it's addressing people of color as some kind of "field guide to whitey," but personally, I'm not aware that any of my friends of color have ever read it. Nor am I aware of any ofThen again, people of color don't have any strong affinity for Jeff Foxworthy or Pluggers, either, nor do their elite hip urban literati friends. SWPL is no different from these, it's just that instead of defining "white" in terms of this:

It's now defined as this:

In fact, this site's sole raison d'etre is so that a certain type of white person who's never identified with their trailer-dwelling brethren over yonder, the target of traditional "cracker" humor, can allay their guilt by pretending to understand what people of color think is ridiculous about them. The fact of whether it's operated by a white person or a person of color is more or less irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned, since it's clearly written by someone who comes from the very same culture he or she is lampooning. Which is exactly why I find it so disingenous, because, at it's core, this isn't "stuff white people like": it's stuff hip educated urbanites of any color like. Quite simply, this is class conflict, and yet it's being wrongly framed as a racial one. Yo homies, SWPL has taken race-baiting to a whole new level.

She's such a punk

WARNING! Shameless self-promotion ahead:


Please join me, my closest friends, and a collection of the curious for my first curated literary event in New York City. Details below:


Claire Shefchik (Sarah Lawrence MFA '09) and Cornelia Street Cafe Present:

PUNK ROCK FICTION

Sunday, January 11, at 6:00 PM

Five young NYC writers will get all up in your face with their fresh, bold, funny and innovative prose. That's punk rock. That's Punk Rock Fiction.

Jason Amos (Sarah Lawrence MFA alum)
Amy Dupcak ((current New School MFA)
Marina Kaganova (current Columbia MFA)
Claire Shefchik (current Sarah Lawrence MFA)

and featuring:

David Hollander is the author of the novel, L.I.E. His short fiction has recently appeared in McSweeney's, Post Road, Swink, Unsaid, The Black Warrior Review, Sleeping Fish, and elsewhere; his nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poets & Writers, and Gastronomica (and again, elsewhere). Hollander's work has been frequently anthologized, most recently in Best American Fantasy, 2007. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Margaret Hundley Parker, and their daughter, Percy.

Detailed bios of all readers can be found here.

Doors open at 6. Admission is $7 and includes a free drink.

The Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia St.
NYC
212-989-9319

Directions:
A, C, E, B, D, F & V to W. 4th St.
1 & 9 to Sheridan Square
http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Boris at Music Hall of Williamsburg

My review is now up on Beyond Race.com. Shout-out to Voyles (minus the Is My Heroes) for the photo.

Hold tight, kids -- plenty of music, mayhem and marshmallows coming your way shortly.