“Stuff White People Like” by Christian Lander
Stuff White People like is Christian Lander’s collection of 150 of the blog entries from his popular blog of the same name. It’s been sitting around for years, and finally graduated to bathroom book, for which it’s ideal. Short, funny. But the funny is also a little painful for me. As my dad often jokes, I resemble those remarks in my earnest white well-meaning but often less-than-world-changing actions. Funny, disposable. Will make you think self-deprecating things (#103), rather than just saying them or writing them. Also, hasn’t aged appreciably. All these things seem still to be true of aspiring regular folks masquerading as hipsters and vice versa. Plus many more. Which is why there is a sequel.
Here’s a sampling of those I’m guilty of:
1. Coffee
5. Farmer’s Markets
6. Organic Food
7. Diversity
8. Barack Obama
9. Making You Feel Bad for Not Going Outside (a Minnesota pastime)
13. Tea
15. Yoga
21. Writers Workshops
41. Indie Music
42. Sushi
44. Public Radio
48. Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops (I bet I get extra white-people points for disliking the former along with Trader Joe’s and loving the latter.)
54. Kitchen Gadgets
61. Bicycles
63. Expensive Sandwiches
70. Difficult Breakups
81. Graduate School
82. Hating Corporations
83. Bad Memories of High School.
85. The Wire
96. Having Children in Their Late 30’s
and on through 150. I come in at about 75%. Sigh. The unique taste of millions, indeed.
April 28th, 2012 at 11:03 am
Good grief, I am the whitest person I know, I think!
April 30th, 2012 at 9:10 am
While this might represent the unique taste of millions, the variations among 150 items represent 150^2 possibilities: 22500 different possibilities. Given about 225 million white people in the USA, that’s 1 in 10,000.