white guy

edited to add: This is not made up, this is 100% true. Maybe later I’ll go get him to pose for a picture.

I saw one of our friends, he arrived in his Prius and was listening to public radio. He had a coffee cup in the car, left-over from lunch at an expensive sandwich shop. After he took a quick call on his iphone, we talked about how the weather isn’t going to be conducive to cycling this weekend. We didn’t talk about his divorce, he needed to take his dog to playgroup. I forgot to ask if he’d be finished with his kitchen renovation before softball season starts. Then I sat on the curb and laughed until my spleen nearly ruptured.

12 thoughts on “white guy

  1. Faith

    I saw one friends, he arrived in his tricked out Cadillac and was listening to 50 Cent on the giant speaker he had installed at the Pep Boys last week. He had an empty 40 of some sort in the car and some Popeye’s chicken wrappers on the dash board. After he took a quick call from a member of his posse, we talked about how the weather might interfere with his basketball practice. We didn’t talk about his parole, he needed to visit his 3 baby-mommas. I forgot to ask if he’d be finished with his child supporte payments before his next court date. Then I sat on the curb waiting to be shot by Al Sharpton.

  2. rebecca

    Faith: I fail to see how my description of our friend compares in any way to your litany of stereotypes. Unless that actually describes someone you know, I don’t see your point.

  3. JP

    Now I’m enraged and delighted. Seriously. Stereotypes are preconceived judgements. We all do it. It’s how we generalize our understanding of a race, ethnicity, gender, etc. The problem is no one fits neatly into the established stereotypes. It’s impossible. Thankfully. I have black friends and relatives and none of them fit into the ugly stereotype that Faith has laid out before us. (I’ll assume it is satirical in nature?) I also have many white guy friends who don’t fit into Rebecca’s stereotype of an actual white guy.

    For some reason there is comfort in lumping people into types. I’m uncomfortable with that. I drive a truck – no i don’t have a confederate flag or a shotgun rack in it. I am a straight male – no I don’t like strip clubs. I could go on and on. Every generalization needs to be qualified. “Stuff SOME white people like” is less grating. But once you do that it isn’t inflammatory and then the fun is lost.

    Having said all of that – Cops love donuts.

  4. rebecca

    I will let Faith speak for herself, but I believe I owe her an apology for reflexively accusing her via email of being racist when I think she was trying to make a more nuanced point.

    My dad was a cop. He loved donuts. <---also 100% true

  5. Faith

    As I told Rebecca when she questioned me prior to approving my comment, it was meant to illustrate that the reaction to “things ______ people like” where ____________ doesn’t equal white will always be subject to different standards and will illicit immediate “racist” calls.

    As for my comment, it was based on an amalgam of: (1) people I know; (2) people I have observed during my 15+ years as a resident of NYC; (3) people I have seen on TV; and (4) a scan of various myspace pages. If we’re talking stereotype, we’re talking an amalgam, and that’s what I was trying to demonstrate.

    I had no idea at the time that Rebecca’s post was something that actually happened. That perhaps makes my comment wrongly placed.

    Anyway, how about Hil’s latest pants suit?

  6. rebecca

    I would still say that your example is racist if not in intent than in execution had I not made sure you knew I was writing about an actual person and had you not explained. I still argue it’s different to compare and actual person (regardless of race or religion) to a fictional one (again, regardless of race or religion).

    Absolutely stereotypes are easy and convenient and start out with grains of truth, and absolutely they’re wrong, and absolutely we all rely on them all the time whether we mean to or not.

  7. Faith

    I still argue it’s different to compare and actual person (regardless of race or religion) to a fictional one (again, regardless of race or religion).

    I totally agree. I thought you were continuing to highlight the Stuff White People Like site, not (as I later realized) telling a true story. I don’t think that site is telling a true story about an actual person, and therefore equally subject to claims of racism, even if some of it is true for some white people.

    Let’s get back to talking meat. I wrote a lovely post last night about bacon.

  8. JP

    I hope the post about bacon was not about cops (who incidentally love donuts). That would round out the wrongness.

    And it it me or do people in general confuse racism with prejudice? You can be a bigot and harbor many prejudicial views without being a racist. A janitor who expresses prejudice is not necessarily a racist.
    A racist would be someone who is exclusionary towards other races based on their perceived racial superiority. An obvious example – a person of a particular race prevents someone of another race from a position because of their race.

    Maybe we should just talk about Arby’s?

  9. Beezel Agentus

    hmmm…my first reaction is to ask why no one noticed the “true story” in the original posting before commenting. My second is to note that, really, it could be any race with the “yuppie” tag attached, or perhaps “early adopter” or other such thing. Race isn’t really relevant, it seems to match up to many people in major metropolitan cities.

  10. rebecca

    Pete – good points. Also, I thought arby’s was gone, but there’s one still around here. Who knew? Well, obviously, other people. But it was news to me.

    Evil – I added the true story part later – it wasn’t obvious when I first posted it.

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