[written by Uva LaGrape]
I found Stuff White People Like through a cVillain link a couple of weeks ago, and I can’t stop thinking about it.
I’ve been emailing the link to everyone I know. I’ve been reading all the knockoff websites. I’ve been angrily screaming out loud at the comments on the blog itself. Why am I so impassioned by this site?
Being a half-black, half-white woman has colored the way I view race. Everyday of my life, even at home, I am reminded of race. I’m privy to african-american cultures because even though I’m “half and half”, 99% of everyone puts me in the “Black” category. I’m privy to white cultures because I’m exposed to them via family. I occasionally even get to unintentionally spy into the “secret” white world, seeing how white folk act when black folk aren’t around because sometimes White people don’t realize that I’m part-black. Race is an aspect of life that I’m always observing and analyzing.
I think stuffwhitepeoplelike evinces such roars of joy from me is because it’s different than almost any other slice of American humor that makes fun of white people. It doesn’t make fun of rednecks, rich people, Southerners, soccer moms, Jewish people, frat boys, blondes, Californians, New “Yahkers”, Minne”sohdans” or the standard white-people stereotypes that we see comics of all races make fun of. This website nails the white people I know. The white people I grew up surrounded by right here in Charlottesville. I wish there was one word that could describe this category of white people. Maybe hippies? Liberals? Progressives? Hipsters? The Liberal elite? Latte liberals? Bohemians? Volvo-Station-Wagon-Drivers? Bodo’s customers? cVillain-readers? That category of white people that usually make fun of everybody else. The young ones whose public pose is one of semi-compassionate sarcasm. The old ones whose public pose is one of semi-sarcastic compassion. The ones with the ironic distance who think they’re plain enough to not be made fun of. Who aren’t TOO Southern or TOO Irish or TOO New Jersey or TOO whatever heritage-wise. The ones who I see physically wince at jokes from stuffwhitepeoplelike because they are not used to being made fun of. The ones who are used to being the gazers, not the gazed upon, because the American TV and movie industry are heavily populated with people of their same mindset.
Stuffwhitepeoplelike is about these people. It goes beyond the realm of a comedian’s one-liner. It becomes not about a stereotype, but about real people. It makes people think about themselves and recognize themselves. Stuffwhitepeoplelike pushes beyond the stereotype and crosses into recognizable reality. It teases a group of people from within the group. It’s my favorite kind of humor, making people say “that’s funny because I do the same thing.” Stuffwhitepeoplelike is to Boozhie Bohemians as Jeff Foxworthy is to Rednecks.
The stroke of genius of Stuffwhitepeoplelike is the labeling of its target, the Professional/Intellectual class and their children, as stereotypical white people. It takes the group of white people least likely to be proud of their Whiteness and labels them as the White archetype. What a turn! That’s really what makes the irony knife twist into the gut for me. Yes 30-year-old cowboy-hat-wearing grizzly-bearded bartender-slash-musician, you are a stereotypical White person. Yes Deadhead soccer mom, you are the new stereotype of a White person. Yes, bicycling professor. Yes, white girl with dreads. Yes, Vespa-mounted grad-student sporting a Phoenix-and-Bettie-Page sleeve spuzzing your way to City Market with Arcade Fire blasting from your BlueTooth. Yes…YOU. I know you thought you weren’t stereotypical because you followed Phish for 6 months in the 90s, and you think you’re a revolutionary because you’re supporting Obama. But you all are surrounded by a million other non-conformists just like you.
So listen up Pot-Smoking Mom and Wearing-Faux-Vintage-Smurf-Tee-Shirts-to-the-Office Dad: You’re winning the Culture War now. You’re the cool kids, and the conservatives and rednecks are the social outcasts. YOU are White People.
[pic]
Related posts:
- Where do we list ourselves in the Yellow Pages?
- Make Your Own Charlottesville Baby!
- Armageddon VII: Power Out on Half the Mall Last Night
I’m white, and I like stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. It’s like an upward spiral of social superiority. Thanks LaGrape.
Very clever site. I think they should add “walking up 2-3 steps at a time on a set of stairs”.
I’m white, and I like stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
have they covered “stuffwhitepeoplelike.com” on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com?
Yup – that site is pretty much describes the vast majority of my friends (many of whom live in Brooklyn – typical), myself very much included. The worst part (or funniest, depending on your opinion) is that I found myself glib when something didn’t hold for me (ha – I no longer care about vintage tee shirts – that so ended in college).
/whiter shade of pale
Oh damn- I was watching the wire on DVD while weraing a northface jacket and then BAM! #85 &87
I feel so white I just might be translucent.
@5 – oh yeah? I netflixed The Wire after having taken my dog for a walk while wearing a northface softshell (distinctly not the coat I wear to work) while my husband cleaned the dishes from the previous night’s dinner party, where all the food was cooked from scratch and the ingredients were either local or purchased from whole foods (although nothing exotic or ethnic was attempted, so I guess we weren’t trying hard enough). No exaggeration. That website’s writer might as well have my typical little life on webcam for inspiration.
/hubby and I were actually discussing going to San Fran this summer to visit friends – wow am I predictable
Umm, raise your hand if you needed stuffwhitepeoplelike deconstructed for your reading pleasure.
I’d never heard of Stuff White People Like till just now. I’ve read a few. Unlike Steven Colbert, I know I’m White. But like anyone steeped in a dominant culture, it’s really hard to have perspective. This blog reads like a cross between “The Lonely Planet Guide to Middle Class America” and “The Onion”. It’s an “Oh Man, of course that’s what that would look like from the outside. I’m such a doofus.” Thanks for the find.
It makes me think of this advice from a famous Baha’i, Shoghi Effendi:
“Let neither [in this case whites and blacks] think that anything short of genuine love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact, sound initiative, mature wisdom, and deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort, can succeed in blotting out the stain which this patent evil has left on the fair name of their common country.”
(Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice, p. 40)
and then this one:
“Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to contribute their share to the solution of this problem, to abandon once for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, to correct their tendency towards revealing a patronizing attitude towards the members of the other race, to persuade them through their intimate, spontaneous and informal association with them of the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their intentions, and to master their impatience of any lack of responsiveness on the part of a people who have received, for so long a period, such grievous and slow-healing wounds.” (Shoghi Effendi: The Advent of Divine Justice, p.33)
Thanks again.
Yours,
Jeff
What gets me is that while Stuff White People Like manages to poke gentle fun at the foibles of white folk, the equivalent parody site (Stuff Black People Like) is horribly racist. There’s an undergraduate sociology paper in that, I’m sure, but I can’t quite put my finger on what makes one of those sites horrible and gross while the other is lighthearted fun. I think it might be the graphic design.
Jeff: aweome
Verbal: totally agree. SBlackPL is quite weak and nowhere near as insightful as SWPL
The reason SWPL is so funny is because it’s so true.
Verbal, I’ll be looking up the counter-blog when I’m not at work to see if it’s really as much more racist than this one as you claim. Because this thing is pretty damn racist. And pretty damn hilarious. And pretty damn awesome. I’d heard of it but not bothered to look it up until now; Uva LaGrape your take is amazingly spot-on. I’ve run in enough ostensibly different “counter-culture” circles that it becomes glaringly obvious how we’re all just trying to change who insurmountable cultural influences have made us, and failing miserably.
Also: This American Life is my favorite NPR show, Mos Def is my favorite rapper, and Juno was fantastic. So it goes.
I’m having an identity crisis…..Only like 13 of 91 items listed……..Gonna have to check my geneology.
This is a better Black version of stuffwhitepeoplelike:
http://stuffeducatedblackpeoplelike.wordpress.com/
speaking of SWPL, is big jim’s closed?! i hear the furniture’s all gone…
“All we need is a voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction. Everybody just gotta keep fuckin’ everybody ’til we’re all the same color.”
-J. Billington Bulworth
/needs a new copy of that film
I don’t like the fact that they say “white people” when in fact it represents the taste of a single faction of the white people club, namely the upper middle class liberal elite (or whatever you want to call ‘em. Grape came up with a lot of good names) It certainly doesn’t reflect the much larger lower middle class, working class, white trash, or super rich tribes.
Another good one with a little more bite than SWPL:
http://stuffwhiteparentslike.wordpress.com/
btw: there are multiple Black versions of SWPL. I’m assuming that the one Verbal thought was “horribly racist” was this one:
http://anythingblack.wordpress.com/humor/
I don’t think it’s horrible, I just think it’s weak and hackneyed. Not as clever.
Silmo: that’s the point of the piece. To intentionally label the Professional Class as the stereotypical white person. See the last 2 paragraphs in my opening post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_elite
Yes I know that’s your point, I just don’t think it’s fair to all the other white folk. I also think its presumptuous. I may be wrong but I don’t think the creator of the site intended it as social commentary. I think he intended it to be a funny site but was too myopic to recognize that his “whiteness” experience is actually a minority view. Reminds me of a college kid from the suburbs who doesn’t realize that her upbringing was one of affluence.
/proud member of the liberal elite
“To intentionally label”
We’ve come so far….
really, Silmo? really? You don’t think the site is an intentional social commentary? I can’t tell if you’re being serious or teasing me.
the website is satire, not an anthropological study. It’s not about direct “fairness” or “accuracy”.
Maybe it’s about the indirect fairness of telling the liberal elite that it’s time to get theirs in humor about race. Rednecks, conservatives, the religious right, black people, Mexicans, Asians…everybody gets their fair share of teasing in the comedy world except for the liberal elite. I think its because its the liberal elite that writes the sitcoms and monologues and movie scripts. The liberal elite may not rule in the political halls of power, but they sure do rule the cultural halls of power. If you don’t believe me, go to fundrace.huffingtonpost.com and input employers such as ABC, CNN, Warner Bros., Comedy Central. You will see column after column of blue donkeys.
i thought http://www.anythingblack.wordpress.com was funny, it is what it is, but SWPL set a high standard, we all just gotta see it for what it is and laugh or not visit, thats my opinion
I am saying that the site isn’t “telling” white people anything. It’s self-referential and funny not satire. It is created by a member of the liberal elite after all, not some working class white guy or a minority. The SWPL site is SWPL.
Go Silm! Labels are complete bullshit.
People are so diverse. Should we start another category for the
Latte drinking – WWE loving – NY Times reading – blue grass loving…performance clothes wearing people?
Where are you going to put them?
I’m usually so non-controversial. B’ yo would be so proud.
One category of white folks that is not covered (and that I used to be a member of) are loud and proud ethnic 1st and or second generation white folks. You don’t really come into contact with them outside urban areas in the Northeast (Irish, Italian, Russian) and Midwest (Polish and other Eastern European). Growing up white in Queens, you identified yourself by your ethnicity and/or your neighborhood, which for the most part were one and the same. Having family that was Catholic and Northern Irish put me in the same political bed as some serious right-wing micks who didn’t agree with me about pretty much anything except that Margaret Thatcher was the devil incarnate. Peace in the North of Ireland has led me closer to the stereotypes embodied in SWPL, but my Republican cousins in New York do help me remember where I came from, flawed though I might be.
So true KCB – I’m from Northeastern PA – Italian – what I wouldn’t do for a real Italian restaurant in Charlottesville. Every corner had a neighborhood bar or catholic church -still does actually. My best friend in high school regularly contributed to the IRA with a bumper sticker that read “Keep England out of Ireland.”
Yet, I love latte’s, kayaking, wear performance wear, read the NY Times, running, and can make the best pot of red sauce you will ever eat. Categorize my Italian white fabulous ass.
Pretty funny site. Some of the articles get a little long but they definitely hit stereotypes. I’m wondering: are these all really white stereotypes? What about professional blacks? Do they do the same things? Or do they just do their professions and skip all the iconic behaviors? Do they not distrust Wal-Mart? Do they not like dinner parties?
brutus:
http://stuffeducatedblackpeoplelike.wordpress.com/
Stuff White Charlottesvillians Like:
First Fridays
Wintergreen
Private schools
If you have kids, living outside of Charlottesville.
If you don’t have kids, living downtown.
Choosing summer camps during the winter.
The Rivanna Trail.
Caspari
Vinegar Hill Theatre
City Council meetings
If you have kids, Volvo Station Wagons.
If you don’t have kids, Toyota Priuses.
Bodo’s.
Taking a road trip to shop. Short Pump. North Carolina outlet malls. NoVa.
Smoking weed without fear of being arrested.
Live Arts
Being anti-Walmart but pro-Target.
Leaving Charlottesville for holidays.
Owning rental properties.
Pulling out laptops anywhere, anytime.
Dressing casual anywhere, anytime.
Riding the trolley from your Downtown apartment to your UVA office.
Avoiding CTS in all other instances.
Splendora.
Vineyards.
Bicycling wearing full Tour de France gear.
Always being “broke”, yet finding the financial wherewithal to travel outside the country at least once a year.
Blue Moon Diner
Remodeling your own house.
Sneak Reviews.
City Market.
Vespas. Must be a Vespa. All other scooters are liquorcicles.
Whole Foods (was Integral Yoga)
Artistic children
cVillain
Excellent list, LaGrape. You have captured the Charlottesville “whitegeist” quite well. I’m still laughing at the Tour de France image.
“whitegeist”…excellent
a couple of additions:
Out-liberalling one another (ex: “I don’t stay at Marriots because 10% of profits go to the mormon church”)
MacLaren strollers (Bugaboos are too showy)
Bringing dogs everywhere
Bringing babies/toddlers everywhere
Complaining about traffic/parking despite having relocated here from DC less than 3 years ago
Making friends with local chefs/restaurant owners
Gardening
Telling non-cville friends about how great it is to be so close to the AT, despite rarely hiking anymore
Sammy Snacks
Ivy Nursery
Yoga
Great list Grape. Love it.
Nice addendum Lys
Here’s another :
Complaining about Capshaw then going to all of his restaurants, concert venues, shows, etc.
i lub coran capshaw
perfect Lys! Yoga shoulda been at the top of my list!
Uva: you forgot “wearing flip flops EVERYWHERE no matter what the season”
i lub shenanigans!
More additions:
complaining about the cost of ACAC but not switching to Gold’s
CSAs
polyface Farm livestock or produce
seeing John Grisham/Dave Matthews/The Coran but acting like it’s no big deal
Stopping at Belair market before/after dropping off/picking up kids from Saint Anne’s.
Seeing Sissy Spacek at Whole Foods, then being sure to tell everyone they see for the next 3 weeks, even strangers, that it was no big deal.
Complaining about parking, while spending $1.50 in gas looking for a free space to avoid spending $2 in a parking garage.
@42 my friend saw sissy spacek at whole foods, stalked her for a while, asked if she could take her picture, & then didn’t save it.
That site is pretty funny. It really gives it to OLE WHITIE! My favorite is STANDING STILL AT CONCERTS! What a great call. Charlottesville gets a lot of good musical acts for being such a small town, and yet you go to these shows and everybody is standing still while the band basically tears their instruments to shreds. Hilarious. Don’t be so scared lil whitie, you can move your legs when you dance!
What I find hilarious is that some people got pissed off because they feel that their being labeled as a WHITE PERSON. YEA PEOPLE IN CHARLOTTESVILLE ARE SO DIVERSE! Give me a break.
To get back to me and Silmo’s slight disagreement… I *don’t* agree fully with “the SWPL site is SWPL”.
My experience with Boozhie Bohemians around here is that they don’t like to make fun of themselves as readily as this site implies. Sure, it’s fun to read it on a website. That has some distance. But if I had started making these statements at a dinner party…it wouldn’t have flown. You have to break this kinda joke to these kinda white people very gently and subtly. They don’t like to be reminded that they are white. They don’t like to be reminded of their privilege. They get defensive when you talk about their lifestyle and how it relates to their Whiteness and privilege. So people like me, who are in the White world but not of it, have learned to be either tactful or silent. Or to scream in a way that you will listen, like with SWPL. Because if there’s one thing white people like, it’s satire.
For all you folks who haven’t checked out Uva La Grape’s site: what educate black people like, here’s a little taste. I LAUGHED MY ASS OFF! This is awesome.
“We’ve all heard the joke that all black people love fried chicken. That’s not true. EVERYBODY loves fried chicken – white or black. It’s even on the buffet at Chinese restaurants! So let’s just scratch that idea right now.
Educated Black People have a more sophisticated taste. We like BAKED CHICKEN. Some even go so far as to use lemon pepper seasonings, but this is only for the upper echelon blacks with advanced degrees, so don’t try this at home if you only have an undergraduate degree. Now if you want to really show off your education, bake chicken breasts only! Most educated blacks prefer their chicken breasts with a side of rice and a vegetable.
By eating baked chicken, we educated Blacks feel as though we are beyond the stigma of eating common fried chicken. If you are a white person and are having your educated Black friends over, bake some chicken. But be careful because we cannot stand dry baked chicken. Baked chicken should be moist, so cover it with foil paper as you cook it. Also white people, never offer a black person fried chicken, you will probably get cursed out.”
funny, the comments at stuffeducatedblackpeoplelike sound a lot more educated & rational than those at stuffwhitepeoplelike. only a few of those waaaa this is racist & stereotypical posts. maybe if it was stuffeducatedwhitepeoplelike or stuffwhiteelitisslike then we wouldn’t have the problem of walmart-shopping, crackerbarrel-eating people saying the list doesn’t apply to them, don’t be stereotyping white people, we’re all different, dammit.
agree that white people don’t like to be reminded they’re white people. but that’s because *some* nonwhites have a problem with whites being white so they feel guilty or something.
/got cut off on the Corner & went home to the internets.
more SWCL
Local bands
Reminiscing about Trax.
Galas.
Making fun of Shiffletts and other townies behind their backs.
Ignoring the Black community unless it needs something from them.
Online personals
Sustainability
Always asking “how can we get more Black people involved in our activity?” but never seeming to be able to answer the question.
Belmont
Trying out their freshman Spanish on members of the burgeoning new Latin community.
Foreign exchange students
Refugees.
Christian’s Pizza!!
Revolutionary Soup!!
Foods of All Nations
Obama 08 Bumper stickers
Charlottesville 10 miler
Ragged Mountain Running Shop
Showing up with a truckload of recycling at the McIntyre Road Recycling Center, and carefully and earnestly depositing all of it, even the cardboard cereal boxes, in the appropriate containers.
Birkenstocks
Reading to their children in a conspicuous location at the main branch of the Jeff/Mad Library
Ad infinitum fund raising for the Charlottesville High School Band
fuck education – http://www.anythingblack.wordpress.com <<<< had me dyin
more SWCL: Belmont
Go ahead, skewer my opinion for being in the white male bubble, but I will defend to my life’s end that its more about class than it is about race. Race may play a larger role here in the south than it does out west, but its STILL more about accumulated wealth and social standing than it is about melatonin. Tilt at all the conveniently located and obvious windmills as one may, its still about haves (who own and place the windmills, surprisingly enough) and have nots. Belmont may have been a “white” area of town (kills me to even type that, but it was before my time), but up until very recently, and is largely still, it is a “have not” part of town.
Belmont got massive “civic penalties” to curb its speeding problems. Park Street got tax payer funded flower beds. Just sayin.
/balcks and whites don’t realize their really pink and brown
@53 – Having worked in the city schools with some of the more behaviorally challenging kids, belmont yo has got it right. It’s really a tale of 3 cities: poor black, poor white, middle class and above everybody else.
@53 B Yo. I couldn’t agree more. Class and culture are bigger divides on many levels
55, 53: Thirded. I’ve been steering clear of this thread, because it seemed like an echo chamber. I saw SWPL a few weeks ago and waded through several hundred comments on another blog I follow. My take-away: it’s subbing race to make a dig about class. Of course, in the US we’re always more comfortable talking about race than we are class. Sometimes it’s fairly harmless (cf. SWPL), other times, not so much (see Civil War, poor-white-Southern support thereof).
Who gives a shit? SWPL is funny to the people it’s aimed at.
Sorry to suck the fun out of the thread, but seriously, the sooner we achieve some sort of *economic* desegregation round these parts, the sooner a lot of these “racial divide” type problems will begin to solve themselves. Which is not to say there is not a racial divide, as there most certainly is, but more to say that the source of said problems are more about class than skin color. A hungry man is an angry man and all that…
/direct your anger at those who directly oppress you, and not the scapegoats that they create…
Sucking the fun out of threads..stuff angry white people like to do.
Ain’t angry, just poor.
And may we direct the jury to your fun packed post in the salad thread? Its cool. You’re white.
Yeah, because a post about a salad was bursting with hilarity to begin with.
Sorry I even took the bait.
/over it. salad and race relations.
it’s so last Monday.
i miss lilith.
I lys milith.
i’m sure milith lysses you too.
you’re sure milith lysses youtube? pralie not.
什么语言，你讲？!!
shenanigans is being a thai hooker again.
Intersectionality
belmontyo: You could never suck the fun out, brother! As long as you’re in it, it’s fun. Besides, looking at my original post, ya think I’m not ready to finally have a serious discussion about race and class in Charlottesville on cVillain?
It’s not “more” about class or race. It’s not a thumb-wrestling match where there is one clear winner. It’s a gallon of koolaid with multiple Flava Krystals poured in. They’re already mixed and can’t be separated.
So regarding Belmont…all categories of people Live in Belmont. But White People LOVE Belmont.
I like Belmont in June
How about you
Coming back from Lowe’s at noon
With a new tool or 2
Plenty of tools at Lowe’s, thats for sure. Look for my upcoming review of that vortex or sorrow.
@27,28 there is a long tradition of making fun of immigrants and their children. That’s why that aspect of you isn’t included in SWPL. It’s about “getting” those kinda white people that don’t get gotten enough in American race humor. “Polacks” and “Micks” and “Wops” and “SoulBrothas” and “Yids” and “Chinamen” and “Poor White Trash” and “Accountants” have already gotten ours. It’s their turn.
Is there a mission statement on the website I missed?
my mission is to act like an idiot in a public forum with virtual impunity. it’s been a rousing success.
75: You’re doing great.
CVillain Mission Statement: To proactively disseminate the vehement, and oft ill-informed opinions of various marginalized members of the greater Charlottesville population through the use of forward thinking technology while leveraging copious amounts of distilled beverages and perceived anonymity with the goal of achieving a significant market stance in cliquish behaviors and pushing the value added unified power branding potential amongst the identified demographic of intarweb shut-ins known as lurkers, despite various degrees of fondness for tare tare.
Annual report available upon request.
Time for elevated disco.
You regulars around here really get your pants all twisted up by these silly posts. Don’t take yourselves so damn seriously. And just because you can’t afford a nice softshell and a purebred dog to go in your volvo station wagon doesn’t mean you have to freak out and spout off about “economic desegregation.” What are you thinking? Reparations for Slavery?
And by the way, Virginia is NOT SOUTHERN. Charlottesville thinks it’s southern. Don’t question my statement or throw out some CIVIL WAR memorabilia that you all learned in elementary school. Go live in THE SOUTH for a while–Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia–and then say this place is southern. You’ll see some real EYE OPENING examples of race relations down there. This place wreaks of Northern Northernness.
Clarence, can there not be differing degrees of “southerness”? Sure Virginia is not as southern as Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama or Georgia, but it is still southern. This is coming from a person who has a lot of family in New England, but grew up in eastern North Carolina where half the cars had either a confederate flag, “the south will rise again” or a “union 1 confederacy 0: halftime” bumper sticker. It was/is a town that is literally separated by railroad tracks. White people don’t go on the east side of the tracks and black people don’t go on the west side. I have spent a lot of time in Virginia as well as the deep south. Charlottesville is definitely not the most southern place, but spend some time in Dublin, Pulaski, South Boston or Wise, and tell me that Virginia isn’t southern.
All b’ yo was trying to say is that the problems in Charlottesville stem from economic differences rather than racial differences. Aside from those at the top of the economic pecking order, this is a pretty liberal town. Most people I have met around here aren’t racist. It’s just the difference between who has what.
Have a drink and be thankful for what you have because if you have a computer and internet access, you’re doing a lot better than a lot of people in the world.
well, since my posts don’t ever get posted, i’m gonna have to thread-jack. found this retarded rant on craigslist about bums. think they’re making fun of street and then they say something about outing b-yo…like his identity is such a mystery…http://charlottesville.craigslist.org/rnr/619720894.html
@ 80 – What a dick! You’d think he was living in 1980’s New York with Bernhard Goetz.
To save the rest of you the effort:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Goetz
@79 Fuck if I know what “southerness” is, clarence, Im third generation californian. Im pretty sure Charlottesville is more southern than San Francisco, but what do I know. And Im pretty sure I don’t take myself too seriously, but I’ll let you be the judge, seems like you’re suited for it. Im just spouting my opinion like every other lunatic on this board. Am I expecting to foment class warfare by occasionally expressing an opinion that is not a dumb joke? Just in case there was any doubt, no. I am not. Just writing some thoughts down, you know? I promise next time to stick to puns and stupid word association next time, k? Wouldn’t want to sully the internet with overly serious thoughts or opinions. Wish there was a LOLCat for this idea, but without one… well… Im speechless.
@80 WTF? I have not posted on CL in years! Not since good old oy brought me over to this nest of non-seriousness. And out me as what, gay? Just because I match my leathers? Bitch, please. Maybe one more post on CL tomorrow, but really I would rather be writing stupid poems about the supernatural for clarence to castigate. What can I say? Its a calling.
um, well, earlie i was hoping to ask you , belmont, yo if you had more thoughtful thoughts regarding how the inequities of economics could be resolved… then it seemed the thread sorta went elsewhere and i dind’t quite know how to ask.
and now since it seems there is complete disarray, and it seems likely for my query to be burried, i ask because it seems you might have out a bright mind’s thought into the issue…(reply, please, if you read this… not all of us jest/play so much…//am truly interested.
@80 Well, isn’t that lovely. That was better than a cup of coffee. I am fully riled up and HULK SMASH! *ahem* 2 years ago I was making $80/hour as a glassblower, working for myself. I am not ready to tell the story how I came into my current predicament, and I certainly am not going to tell it here. Some assume because I live on the street now, that I’ve always been this way. Not true. Fuck, I really want to break something now, damn my non violent ways.
“Eye Popping Female Teen Bum”…sounds like the banner ad for my 2nd favorite website
@85 I have a lot of ideas how economic inequality could be resolved, but lets just distill it down to “the golden rule” shall we? Chock it up to my optimistic Agnosticostalism, I guess. For what its worth, Im not concerned that there are rich people and poor people, there have always been and always will be. I’m merely concerned about the current pace of the rapidly widening gap between the two, and the general devaluation of humanity that that seems to cause. Come to think of it though, history informs that these sorts of stratifications have a way of resolving themselves, one way or another, like the tension between tectonic plates. Still, pity it couldn’t be done on purpose.
(oh and by the way, I said this all with a straw hat and cane doing a softshoe to ragtime music, lest it be taken seriously)
I agree, B-yo
Is that smarm?
Oh hey my post’s up, guess I’ll stop bitching. But seriously, the person who posted that rant on CL is an asshole. Don’t let them make you feel bad Street!
and B-yo, please continue to give it to clarence. It’s hilarious!
Yo has clearance to give it to clarence.
one night last august I was happily walking home from my first day as a University of Virginia grad student. I was feeling warm and fuzzy…
grad school: high hopes!
back in my hometown: comfy!
back with my family: cozy!
When an 80’s-looking black sedan rolled slowly past me on a lightless street and yelled “Hey there, nigger!” then sped off.
Welcome back to the South.
One night, having attended my first show at star hill and being slightly tipsy, I decided to walk home to my new neighborhood (thru garret square). I was feeling good!
New hometown: yay!
New neighborhood: new neighbors!
Warm spring evening: spring in step!
Then a lowered Acura rolled up slow and one of the five occupants yelled “The fuck you lookin at bitch ass cracka?”
Welcome to “Assholes Come in all Colors!”
(@91 was it smarm, grape? fess up)
Oooh.. my response went Live.
/I will not get sucked back to RnR, someone toss me a line!
stuff *this* white person likes – this site is a “win/win”. Love the carpets. Love the portrait in the upper left:
linkypoo
@95 – Grape, that is f*cked up. I’m sorry that happened to you.
@96 ditto
@98 – that is f*cked up. what happened to you
those carpets almost made me vomit.
@95: Hope you told them to kiss your coffee colored ass.
@98: Ewwwwww. *You* would like that.
1. My story was about clarifying to all that this is, indeed, the Dirty South.
2. Your story only strengthens that assertion.
3. Stop drunkenly eyeballing black dudes in slow-rolling Acuras.
YO SON!
You’ve got to label when shit is NSFW!
So Im not allowed to look at black people now? And its my fault if there’s repercussions?
Sounds awfully familiar.
You have me pegged wrong grape… Who’s stereotyping who?
/resents being put in a box, especially the box you’ve got me in.
Uva and Byo are debating again. I’ll go get the baby pool and the jello.
Yeah, I gotta let it go. I look crappy in a speedo.
/sighs at the cVillain King of Sarcasm’s momentary loss of his mighty sense of humor
There, there, my liege. We all here know you and this is not B-yo. Does B-yo pout thus? Rant thus? Where are the twinkles in his eye?
My eye twinkles are currently malignant. I’ll be ok though, I just need to go bite a clown.
Milord Byo, might your malignant eyes but live to see me in your touch, you’d say you have twinkles again
scoriole: the inequities of economics can be lessened by taking care of everyone’s health care.
more SWCL
jogging
Over 30: NPR
Under 30: 106.1 (used to be NRN)
106.1 is cheesy. NRN is still the best.
clarence, i agree completely with echo- go west, go north, go to another country- charlottesville is southern. at it’s heart, very very southern.
Uva Grape, i think one of the first steps in taking care of everyone’s health would start with food. not just that all are fed, but well fed and where does it come from (not the grocery store), how to care for it and prepare it, etc. i truly believe the entire planet would be a better place if we all really thought about and appreciated how and why and where the very thing we need other than air and water come from. and therefore- healthier.
(and we need music, too. and other people)…
/just spent time with people making top ten best/needed thing of all time…
@113: to that middle part: AMEN!
clarence, you seem to equate “southern” with “white trash racists”. There’re plenty of those up north.
I’m a 12th generation Virginian – you gonna tell me I’m not southern because I don’t hate black people?
charlottesville is southern. at it’s heart, very very southern
good grief don’t I know it
/misses fellow members of oppressed northeastern liberal elite
@115 – You do hate black people, you just don’t know it. It’s going to erupt, Alien-like, out of your chest and chew someone’s face off. So, that’s going to be a pretty cool thing to see.
It’s going to erupt, Alien-like, out of your chest and chew someone’s face off
So this lump on my chest isn’t a zit… its Klancer?
/hope its benign
Klancer – lolz. Yo wins the interwebs today.
And I *do* know I hate black people, but it’s not because they’re black, it’s because of the same reason I hate white people, and yellow people, ad infinitum.
It’s because they’re people, and you all suck
/kidding (probably)
oh, hello! i see you’re all still discussing racial and socioeconomic friction.
tell me, will you be here until the end of time? oh you will? alright then, i’ll check back later.
parlie – next up, “Politics and Religion”
touche!
Oy… show me, on the doll, where parlie touche’d you.
I can’t, I’m not anatomically correct…
you seem to equate “southern” with “white trash“…
i kid, because I love
/is white trash once removed and headed back
Stuff Black Charlottesvillians Like
Church.
Long White Tees.
Church.
Smoking.
Men: Standing gravely on the side of the dancefloor.
Women: Rubbing our butt on you on the dancefloor.
Red Lobster.
Old Black Men: Blatantly ogling ANY woman, then loudly whispering a catcall as if I can’t hear you BUT I CAN OLD MAN.
All Black Men: plump white women.
Saying “Greeeaat Day!”
Tight clothes in the summer.
CTS. Using it and working for it.
Church.
Empire waistbands.
Housing young relatives from distant big cities who “had to get away from all that for a while.”
Old BC’s: Complaining about Black youth
Young BC’s: Comporting themselves publicly in no way similar to the way their parents act or taught them to act. Except in church.
Saying “What in theee WORLD?”
Inquiring about the status of your mother’s health
Using “Aw-ight” to replace any other word.
Interracial Relationships.
Knowing every other Black person raised in Charlottesville by name or at least by a relative’s name. “Ain’t you Johnny’s li’l sarster?”
Acknowledging each other in public…aka “Speaking”. eg: “Miss Wanda told me you saw her in church last night and you didn’t speak. Go get me a switch from the cherry blossom tree out front.”
Crocs
Smoking weed without fear of getting arrested. But getting arrested anyway.
Wishing you a Blessed Day.
The White Folk who grew up with them and never became White People.
Church.
@115, No. Maybe your subconscious is coming out there. I don’t think I said anything about hating Black people. Where did that come from? And I didn’t mention any white trash racists either.
Mr. Yo (whom I’m not trying to castigate, but rather just trying to push his buttons) brought up the point that the racial divide around here wasn’t the real issue, rather we should be talking about THE HAVES & HAVE NOT’S and that skin color wasn’t the issue. From his perspective it’s about accumulated wealth and social standing.
Just to clarify, those two variables aren’t presented on an even playing field for ALL to feast on. And the biggest barrier in that playing field is race. It would take some pretty huge measures (economic desegregation) to put the Black community on an even keel after the whole slavery thing. White’s are privileged, and therefore more fun to make fun of by talking about how they all look and act alike, and stand still at concerts. Even the most open-minded and educated person has stereotypes that they live with regarding other races which come out in daily life. Take Uva Lagrape for example: she seems intelligent, but she obviously likes to stereotype white people and black people also make fun of white European immigrants.
.
@126 – that was every single kind of cool. i wish this could be a classroom and not an argument.
You’ll see some real EYE OPENING examples of race relations down there.
so, what you were saying is that the REAL south is an example of kumbayah racial harmony?
Consider my buttons pushed, and glad to see you getting sucked into the seriousness Mr. Clarence. But lets dispense with the formalities, shall we? Please. Call me Bel.
For the record, and quite unfortunately, race is an issue. My point is that it is no longer *the* issue, but merely a very convenient diversion from the main issue, that being economic standing. Yes, the playing field has been skewed for a long time. And yes the repercussions of the past continue to effect the current field of opportunity for advancement. But as long as we sit here squabbling over what amounts to a very limited viewpoint over what the possibilities are for individuals in this society based on “race” (a term that is not even scientifically definable) then the longer the purposes of those who hold the real power are being served. Oh god! Teh mexicans are coming to take our jobs! Let’s blame them rather than the business owners who hire them for the few sheckles it saves them. Oh god! Teh blacks are all welfare cheats! My taxes are subsidizing their laziness! Lets blame them rather than the movements of power with (esp with regards to education) that leave them little other option. Its absurd, not to mention self fulfilling.
I, white as I am, was a welfare latch key kid raised on WIC coupons and Reagan’s government cheese. Without that, the matriarch of the yo’s simply would not have survived. Said matriarch pulled herself out of that cycle… why? Because she was white, and therefore had all these doors magically open for her? No, because that’s just who she was. Driven. In fact, had she been a so called minority, she would have had even more options to take advantage of, but that is truly beside the point.
The poor are the poor are the poor. Are you telling me that an obviously homeless white man and and obviously homeless black man would be treated differently trying to use the bathroom at the Omni? Are you telling me that the beat to hell hooptie reliant K-car would come under different scrutiny when driving into the entrance of the Farmington Country Club solely dependent on the race of the driver? Ive been on that side of the economic divide for the bulk of my life, and I ran with folks of all colors in the same boat. I have lived in a fucking storage shed! I am here to tell you first hand, the posh set that shut us out were not at all discerning amongst us based on our skin color. Granted this was the left coast, but the general rule still applies.
Stereotypes from the left or the right, from black or white or from rich or poor are a convenience of the intellectually lazy. Yes race counts (although it won’t be very many more generations that this will even be an idea), but “class” counts more – always has and it always will. And the vast chasm btw rich and poor has never been so distinct and huge than it has in recent times. So lets all point our fingers and blame our lot on the color of our skin, while the 5% of the population that owns 80% of assets in this country sit back and laugh while lighting their cigars with the hundred dollar bills that could by a fucking textbook or a meal or a chance for someone that might need it. I am sure they will appreciate it.
And by the way, you do know that from the beginning not all slaves were black, right? Majority, yes, but not all. Its like saying only women have been sexually assaulted.
I think we agree mostly, and you know me, I couldn’t not respond. I harbor no animosity. Mostly I just want to post my opinion to piss off parlie by getting all serious. Hee hee…
See you at Glenmore! I hear they have excellent tartare…
great comment b’yo, well stated. it’s all about class, class, class. Karl Marx wasn’t totally off his rocker…
thank you for that comment b’yo.
thank you baby jesus
the tartare…..oh the tartare. with some bologna of course
Dont forget the white, white mayo…
i want you all to have a blessed day
SWPL #94: Getting defensive when the subject of race comes up.
Oh please.
Lagrape. Did you just come from church?
Question: Your from Cville, you go to UVA. Your half-white, You’ve gotta be guilty too….. you can laugh at yourself right. And do you pronounce it blesst or bless ed day?
I don’t ever say it cuz I’m not washed in the blood of the lamb. But if I did I’d say “bless’d”
Its hard not to get defensive about race issues. Recognizing that there is a thing like white privilege is hard. Harder still when you are on the receiving end. i can be reasonably sure that if I dont get a job its not because of my race or if I have a problem in a store or with a service and want to talk to a manager they will be the same color as me and take me seriously (or not I am still a woman thus prone to hysteria and illogical ways of thinking tsk) or that if I’m pulled over its for something legitimate and that I probably wont be shot and killed. Stuff white people like is maintaining the status quo cause it benefits us. I don’t have all the answers but getting defensive is no way to be an open door or a listening ear or an ally. Change isn’t only made when theres a chance to vote for a black candidate or when there’s a march. It’s not letting your neighbor call an adult black man “Son” instead of “Sir”. I see things like that all the time. And it’s not right. Race is the issue if you’re not white. White privilege let’s you think it’s just “an issue”. White women get jobs in offices, black women get jobs in housekeeping, still. One pays better. That a race issue that “magically” opens up doors for white people. I can be reasonably assured that even though i don’t have a four year degree, I can get any office job I want and that I won’t be offered a job doing something less in my skill set than what I applied for.
good for you. my first few years out of the top college in the country i couldn’t get a single office job. just saying that being white doesn’t magically open doors for everyone.
or maybe it’s because i was in miami, where i was a minority. and it’s not about the color of your skin but whether you’re in the majority. so it’s not white privilege but in-group privilege.
“any office job i want!”
and also:
“the top college in the country!”
oh, sorry, i added the exclamation points. white people get erections for exclamation points, so, it’s gud.
Just thought that bore repeating. Thank you Rose.
This guy just got a $300k book deal because of that site:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/fashion/30web.html?ex=1207800000&en=310f6e23743543c6&ei=5070&emc=eta1
more SWCL:
putting up with bad customer service
calling each other “douche” or “douchebag”
@130- Huh? If your point was “class not race is the root of discrimination” you used so many words to say it that the point was lost. And I think a lot of your statements of fact don’t stand up to scrutiny. For example, the statement “the vast chasm btw rich and poor has never been so distinct and huge than it has in recent times…” just isn’t true. Wealth was FAR more concentrated throughout most of history.
Are you an advocate of redistribution of wealth? On what basis?
(haddadodisfirscuzfirstoneisdelaidannooneinatnitesothisatest)
you used so many words to say it that the point was lost
ascii tourette’s. its a problem I have.
I think a lot of your statements of fact don’t stand up to scrutiny
never ever claimed to be an expert. quite the opposite. i defer to your edumacation.
Are you an advocate of redistribution of wealth
No. I am an advocate of human beings being kind to each other of their own free will.
(haddadodisfirscuzfirstoneisdelaidannooneinatnitesothisatest)
*you’re* a towel.
He slips, he slides and he almost never answers a tough query head on. But before you get mad, B-yo, know that you answer more tough queries than anyone else here. Everyone else ignores or hides or sarcastically jokes. As White People are wont to do.
So, are you saying I do or I dont? I thought I did a pretty good job. Its a little early for a huge ecomomic discussion dont you think? But I didn’t want to leave aimless’ comment wandering, well, aimlessly.
And btw… as an “out” villain, I am held accountable for my responses, unlike some bunched fruit. Just sayin.
Another thing White Charlottesvillians Like:
Loving Obama while ignoring the extreme racial divide in our own town.
“White is a status, not a color. Which makes this blog very accurate. Those of us who are white (privileged) need to become aware of how our whiteness is about status. People who are white who do not feel privileged, i.e., are struggling and/or poor might feel confused about white status because it doesn’t seem that they have had access. But that is part of our American history. People who are not white usually get it – aka what whiteness is. Those of us who have had the status often don’t get it. We just assume everyone is or wants to be like us – white – because we are rarely challenged to step out of our comfort zone and look at ourselves. Hence we create programs to help people get “access” to what we have, rather than considering it something we should dismantle. Dismantle? … but that would mean giving up the privilege! Yeah. White people like privilege so much we deny it exists so that it can’t be stolen or taken away from us. Great idea!”
–Maggie Jarry
are we a “nation of cowards” when it comes to discussing race? We constantly joke and tease about race, but when was the last time you had a real race discussion amongst your friends or family?
Foxfield
Daytona 500.
@154: Christmas
@ 154 Snark asside, I will give you a serious answer.
Please dont take this the wrong way, because most of the time I agree with you when you cram gender in race into these silly internet dogma fests… but the reason I steer away from getting into it with you when I disagree is that you are so damn certain you are right. I never see any qualifiers like “its my opinion…” or “perhaps…”. I sometimes wonder if you ask these loaded questions just to jump down someone’s throat when they vary from your somewhat militant viewpoint. I certainly dont get the feeling like anyone could convince you of anything other than what you already “know”.
Dont get me wrong, I am glad there are social warriors like you on the barricades fighting the good fight. The world needs some of that. And perhaps it is just me, having been raised in a house hold suffused with the more humorless flavor of second wave feminism, but damn. Its not a “discussion” when the dogma is so set in stone. I like to kick ideas around, not get kicked around.
I mean no offense, Im just puttin my two coppers on the table.
thank you, b-yo. thought-provoking.
I should have mentioned that it is sometimes hard to get at a person’s intention through ascii text on a screen. I have no idea what you are like IRL. I am certainly not qualified to judge anyone…
Damn, now I feel all bad.
I like Foods of All Nations…
I like Feast…