disturbing the comfortable

[sophiaserpentia]

Stuff White People Like

Oh, this new blog ruffles the feathers in all kinds of ways. It's brilliant. The comments on each post are proof that it's working. Yes, the criticism that this really mainly applies to yuppies is true, but since they are dominating a lot of the urban cultural dialogue it's still funny and informative to observe the squirming.

Recycling is a part of a larger theme of stuff white people like: saving the earth without having to do that much.

Recycling is fantastic! You can still buy all the stuff you like (bottled water, beer, wine, organic iced tea, and cans of all varieties) and then when you’re done you just put it in a DIFFERENT bin than where you would throw your other garbage. And boom! Environment saved! Everyone feels great, it’s so easy!

... If you are in a situation where a white person produces an empty bottle, watch their actions. They will first say “where’s the recycling?” If you say “we don’t recycle,” prepare for some awkwardness. They will make a move to throw the bottle away, they will hesitate, and then ultimately throw the bottle away. But after they return look in their eyes. All they can see is the bottle lasting forever in a landfill, trapping small animals. It will eat at them for days.

Comments

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

The whole point is that stereotyping is inaccurate. This is a demonstration thereof without warning you in advance that it's a demonstration thereof.

[el-christador.livejournal.com]

In The Blank Slate, Pinker talks about research on stereotyping and says it was found that stereotypes do tend to be correct statements about average properties of groups. That is, they represent "mean field" theories, in physics terms. Of course, that means they don't apply to every member of the group, so in that sense they're inaccurate, because they miss the variation within the group i.e. that not every member of the group exhibits the average properties of the group.

[el-christador.livejournal.com]

Oh, important to note that exceptions to the above are malicious stereotypes or those arrived at without contact with the group being stereotyped, which do not tend to be valid assessments of average group properties.

WRT the blog, I figured that the point of them was that they contain a grain of truth when speaking about white hipsters, and for all I know possibly white hipsters in the US do sometimes go around self-consciously having black friends. But in the Canadian context there's nothing to satirize there, in the absence of the black-white divide (due to the black half being missing), so it's more baffling than irritating. But if your point is that these are things that don't apply to all white people, then I guess that still works.