The Work of Stuff White People Like
As you can see from my reading list, I’m a fan of the blog Stuff White People Like. I’m also White (proof: I like all of the things listed here, with the exception of Manhattan, which I haven’t got around to visiting. I ‘did’ South America before Europe, you see.). So, apparently, are most of the folks who dig the site, to the point where the (white) author is soon to release a book with Random House. To some extent the whole trajectory of this blog takes on an outline of ressentiment; configured by Fiona Probyn as a “giving that is always already a taking”. The self-reflexive white subject (self-reflexivity being, undoubtedly, something else that White People Like) recognises themselves with some shame, laughs at themselves (such is their white humility), generates a similarly motivated following of white compadrés. The blog author gets a book deal. The white readers buy the book. And at the end of the day, it’s hard to say whether power, or at least capital, has shifted any; although I guess that’s the edge of irony, and humour …
I’ve been thinking about that blog a bit lately, and I think you’re right on the money with the ressentiment call. It has had a good run on other blogs across the political spectrum for precisely that reason.
Comment by adam — 3/29/2008 @ 8:47 am
[…] My ongoing fascination with the unfolding of Stuff White People Like led me to here today; which in turn led me here. I think it probably does similar work on white identities (i.e. reconfirming them through self-reflexivity), but as a deliberately political strategy it directs the debate with much more precision. Compare the media that it got with that of SWPL. […]
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