H54: Hip

The latest hip place to visit is Stuff White People Like. It is really funny. Sanctimonious green opinions take a real hit in this list. Many of us white people in the green movement see ourselves in all of our ridiculousness.

Here is the list of subjects to date:

#1 Coffee	#37 Renovations
#2 Religions that their parents don’t belong to	#38 Arrested Development
#3 Film Festivals	#39 Netflix
#4 Assists	#40 Apple Products
#5 Farmers Markets	#41 Indie Music
#6 Organic Food	#42 Sushi
#7 Diversity	#43 Plays
#8 Barack Obama	#44 Public Radio
#9 Making you feel bad about not going outside	#45 Asian Fusion Food
#10 Wes Anderson movies	#46 The Sunday New York Times
#11 Asian Girls	#54 Kitchen Gadgets
#12 Non-Profit Organizations	#55 Apologies
#13 Tea	#56 Lawyers
#14 Having Black Friends	#57 Juno
#15 Yoga	#58 Japan
#16 “Gifted” Children	#59 Natural Medicine
#17 Hating their parents	#60 Toyota Prius
#18 Awareness	#61 Bicycles
#19 Traveling	#62 Knowing what’s best for poor people
#20 Being an expert on YOUR culture	#63 Expensive Sandwiches
#21 Writer’s Workshops	#64 Recycling
#22 Having Two Last Names	#65 Co-Ed Sports
#23 Microbreweries	#66 Divorce
#24 Wine	#67 Standing Still at Concerts
#25 David Sedaris	#68 Michel Gondry
#26 Manhattan (now Brooklyn too!)	#69 Mos Def
#27 Marathons	#70 Difficult Breakups
#28 Not Having a TV	#71 Being the only white person around
#29 80s Night	#72 Study Abroad
#31 Snowboarding	#73 Gentrification
#32 Vegan/Vegetarianism	#74 Oscar Parties
#33 Marijuana	#75 Threatening to Move to Canada
#34 Architecture	#76 Bottles of Water
#35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report	#77 Musical Comedy

ATN (The Assimilated Negro) has a good interview of the blog proprietor, Christian Lander.

The LA Times says of the blog:

Lander is doing to whites what scores of journalists and politicians do to non-white minorities every day, “essentializing” complex identities — that is, stripping away all variety and reducing them to their presumed authentic essences.

…Lander is gently making fun of the many progressive, educated, upper-middle-class whites who think they are beyond ethnicity or collectively shared tastes, styles or outlook. He’s essentially reminding them that they too are part of a group.

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

One of the reasons I feel compelled to write about this is the reality in our culture that hip turns to stupid very, quickly. There is a short shelf life on hip. But, I do think there isn’t enough that can be written or promoted that invites people of privilege to look at themselves and laugh at themselves. Domination is un-funny and lest white people forget, domination is how most of the goodies came to the white man. Just sayin’ . . .

Dolls from Flickr