As Woody Allen said, the heart wants what it wants. So, why are you here?

My New Favorite Website

This site is making the rounds, so you've probably seen it, but if you haven't here's the link. It's called "Stuff White People Like," and it is the single most painfully accurate jab at middle-class white culture that I have ever seen. This is a selection from "Being The Only White Person Around."

In most situations, white people are very comforted by seeing their own kind. However, when they are eating at a new ethnic restaurant or traveling to a foreign nation, nothing spoils their fun more than seeing another white person.

Many white people will look into the window of an ethnic restaurant to see if there are other white people in there. It is determined to be an acceptable restaurant if the white people in there are accompanied by ethnic friends. But if there is a table occupied entirely by white people, it is deemed unacceptable.

The arrival of the “other white people” to either restaurants or vacation spots instantly means that lines will grow, authenticity will be lost, and the euphoria of being a cultural pioneer will be over.

Being aware of this can be extremely valuable in your efforts to gain the trust of white friends and co-workers. If you bring a white person to an ethnic restaurant and another white person (or group of white people) shows up, you can lose all respect and trust that you have worked so hard to acquire. Do your best to find a table with a divider, or ask the waiter to put future white people out of sight.

Note: This does not apply to night clubs.

The site points out things that white people like which I have fallen prey to so wholeheartedly that I have expounded on them and sung their praises on this very website:

- Michel Gondry (I own that DVD set)
- Mos Def
- Studying Abroad
- Musical Comedy (I was pimping Flight of the Conchords, what, two weeks ago?)
- Knowing What's Best For Poor People
- Juno (four weeks ago)
- Irony
- Netflix (last year)
- "Arrested Development" (this Christmas)
- Assists
- Traveling
- Making You Feel Bad About Not Going Outside

And that's just a small sampling. I would say out of 80 posts so far, there are about maybe two dozen where I didn't go "Oh, I've done that," and flinch, and exactly zero posts where I didn't think "no, I don't know anyone like that." Check out the site, it's updated every day, unlike, say, this site, so there's a new post up whenever you check back in.

Labels: stuff white people like

posted by Ben Wyman @ 12:41 PM