March 28, 2008
Speaking of convergence culture, Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like has landed a book deal based on the stuff he blogs. I'm impressed.
Lander's posts sending up the white middle class lifestyle get mixed responses. Some people get it, some don't. Some white people are a bit sensitive, although some of the entries have made me a bit uncomfortable. Still, it was a brilliant idea for a blog. Some of our op-ed columnists would get a real kick out of it.
You can get a fair idea of what he's on about from the Full List of Stuff White People Like:
Dinner parties
Having gay friends
Hating corporations
Bottles of water
Gentrification
Knowing what's best for poor people
Arts degrees
Being an expert on YOUR culture
White people are pretty conflicted about their culture. On one hand, they are proud of the art, literature, and film produced by white culture. But at the same time, they are very ashamed of all the bad things in white culture: the KKK, colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow laws, feudalism, and the treatment of native americans.
Arts degrees?
These degrees enable white people to spend four yeas of their lives reading books, writing papers and feeling great about themselves. It is a known fact that Arts students firmly believe that they are doing you/society a favor by not getting a job and reading Proust. They use this to protest for reduced tuition, more money for the arts, and special reduced student rates on things like bus passes.
...
So why would white people spend all that time studying and working to get into college if they are just going to read books that they might have read in their free time? Because white people have it made. They can take that degree and easily parlay it into a non profit job, an art gallery job, or work in publishing. If the pay is low, no problem, their parents will happily help out with rent until they magically start making six figures or non-magically turn 40.
Ouch.
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Should be stuff white American people like.
I discovered him via the Cats (Catallaxy) & the post about travel caught my eye and one destination was our home country where the people are predominantly...