Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Stuff White People Like, part two of at least two.

I know many people have been perplexed by whether or not the author of the site Stuff White People Like is actually white. I assumed that he/she was, just because I detected a note of ironic shame in many of the posts. If you can judge based on names, then I think he is. There was an article in the LA Times this weekend about the site:

"I'm writing about the white people who think they're absolutely unique and individual," [Christian] Lander told me. "I'm calling them out and poking fun of myself. The things I post are all the things I like too!"

Pardon my gross generalization, but I feel like only white people are named Christian, but maybe that's just me. I know of four Christians - a white doctor, Kirsten Dunst's brother, Christian Bale, and Christian Slater. Thus my unscientific analysis of Christians who are white. Anyway, either way the site is definitely self-referential which I deeply appreciate. I only have one quibble:

Lander, who arrived in L.A. from Toronto 2 1/2 years ago, came up with the idea for the blog after talking to a Filipino friend about how much they both liked the HBO police drama "The Wire." For some reason he's already forgotten, they both wished that more white people watched the show. Which got him thinking: What exactly do white people like?

I think white people like "The Wire." Or maybe it's just that the vast majority of my friends are white (it's true, and very weird, but then again I guess I live in gentrified San Francisco), and they all seem to like or want to watch The Wire. Still. I stand by my theory.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check this out: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

The popularity of "Christian" as a boy name is rising in the U.S. No data regarding their ethnicity, however. Decline to state?

Casey said...

I have minority Christians.

Oh, and I LOVE The Wire, and I am AT LEAST a quarter Mexican.

Emily said...

teachers have good sample sizes. therefore: fair enough.

Emily said...

also, technically mexican-american (or latino/hispanic) is categorized as a subcategory of "white/caucasian." that's why you'll find a lot of boxes for "non-hispanic caucasian" or something like that, which is what i would end up checking, although i usually decline to state.

Kim said...

My friend Michael is good friends with this Christian fellow. I found this out today, and it totally rocked my world.

I think he should add Stuff White People Like to the list of Stuff White People Like. I love it.