from the Houston Chronicle
Race-related blog causing controversy
Caucasian site is flooded with hits
By CORILYN SHROPSHIRE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Asian women, fancy coffee, farmers markets, dinner parties and gay friends — these are just a sampling of life’s pleasures — if you’re white.
Excuse me?
That’s according to Christian Landers, the (white) wit behind the Web sensation Stuff White People Like blog, an irreverent daily missive on the passions of posh urbanites of the Caucasian persuasion.
It’s the latest in a string of racially charged blogs (first came theassimilatednegro.com, then angryasian.com) that act as a virtual shrink’s sofa for those tackling the tricky topics of race and class.
Readers, hundreds every day, flood the site’s comment section with alternating fury and delight.
To date, there have been 14 million hits, reflecting the nation’s current obsession with race and gender, too. For confirmation, check out the comments and speeches by presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton just this past week.
Dean Rader, a pop culture critic who authors weeklyrader.blogspot.com, says readers flock to Stuff White People Like because it’s hip and hot and the place to be seen and heard online. “It’s just as much about class and coolness and yuppiness and consumption (as race).”
And yes, if the some of the posts push far beyond the boundaries of good taste, readers seem to find liberation in an environment unfettered by political correctness.
Take #11 on the list: “Asian Girls: 95% of white males have at one point in their lives experienced yellow fever. … White men love Asian women so much that they will go to extremes such as stating that Sandra Oh is sexy, teaching English in Asia, playing in a co-ed volleyball league … ”
Ouch.
That post has received more than 1,550 responses.
Other posts — try No. 36, “Breakfast Places” and No. 63, “Expensive Sandwiches” — may seem a bit more benign, but the post and ensuing conversations carry just as much bite.
“To a white person, there is no better way to spend a Saturday morning than to get up late, around 9:30 and pile into your Audi or Volvo and drive to one of these little places and eat breakfast with friends,” Landers writes. “Oftentimes these breakfasts last for an hour or more (hence the long lines and wait times). Some white people take it to the next level and bring their dogs, newspapers or even a laptop.”
The latest spinoff of Landers’ blog — Stuff Asian People Like.