Laughter: Not Always the Best Medicine

(image by Flickr user colin_n used with a Creative Commons license)

At a recent reading at the Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., Christian Lander, author of the new book Stuff White People Like, joked about internships, grad schools, and indie rock—all stuff, Lander says, white people really, really like. And if laughter is any indication, the room full of mostly white 20 and 30-somethings seemed to agree.

Earlier this year, Lander, a red-headed Canadian who lives and works in Los Angeles, became somewhat of an Internet celebrity when he started publishing his blog, Stuff White People Like. The site—a pseudo-anthropological study cum satire—documents what a certain type of upper-middle class, educated white person likes (dinner parties) and doesn’t like (typos on menus). Because of his blog’s popularity, Lander is now considered one of the web’s iconic embodiments of white identity.

Not everyone likes Lander’s shtick and, at the reading, he was quick to acknowledge that. But he was also quick to respond, “So let me get this straight, you’re getting angry about someone making broad generalizations about your race? Hm, I think we know some people who can probably relate.”

It was his best point of the night. Lander seemed to understand that his jokes straddle a thin line between satire and barbarity, and that, when poking fun at an entire race, context and self-awareness really matter. As Lander asserted, he skewers a privileged racial group in a “non-hateful way.” And even if some people are offended by his jokes, he said that wasn’t his intent.

Lander explained that “keeping up with the Joneses” today isn’t about having a bigger house and driving a better car. It’s about being more liberal and having a smaller carbon footprint. Stuff White People Like is supposed to make people realize this elitism is a bit purposeless. Lander himself admits that he, too, plays this game. By making fun of über-hip, eco-conscious white folks, he’s calling himself out in a way.

But as the reading wound down, I found myself feeling increasingly uncomfortable and self-conscious. “I got a joke about unpaid internships in the South that went by a different name—but I won’t go there,” Lander deadpanned as the crowd erupted into the biggest laugh of the night. To me, this comment crossed the line. Making a joke about slavery to a room full of white people seemed, well, problematic, to say the least. And by the end of the reading, it seemed worth asking: Is Stuff White People Like just another humorous way for a group of privileged folks to feel better about themselves without taking on the responsibility to make the situation better?

Later, as Lander signed books for a long line of fans, three black women in the audience expressed doubt about Lander’s message. They worried that, whether Lander intends it to or not, Stuff White People Like may represent more of a setback on issues of race and class than most of Lander’s fans realize.

One of the women, a teacher, admitted that the blog makes her challenge her own sense of identity, but not necessarily in a good way. Many of the things Landers says white people like are things she also enjoys. Which leads her to wonder: Does her love of coffee and sweaters make her less black?

One of the other black women noted that by identifying what is “white,” Lander is also defining what is "not white." That, she argued, can reinforce classist and racist attitudes. By claiming something elitist is by default “white,” Lander implies that such elitist affinities do not belong to other racial groups. For example, Lander claims perfect grammar as evidence of “whiteness.” If that’s true, is poor grammar a black thing? And by arguing that going to graduate school is white, isn’t Lander reinforcing assumptions about the kind of people that fill the ranks of academia?

Certainly, white people should be able to talk about “whiteness” without having to parse every aspect of their conversations. How else can we expect white people to deal with the issues that surround race relations in modern America? The problem with the folks at the book signing was that they seemed to be laughing about stereotypes without acknowledging a key component that allows racism to continue: the inability of a person in an advantageous position (like a white person) to recognize privilege.

This strikes at the problem of Stuff White People Like. Lander and company seem aware of the complications of their elitist attitudes but don’t care about changing them. It’s okay to laugh at Lander’s satire, of course, but white readers need to be self-aware and self-critical about why they are laughing, too.

As I walked out of the bookstore discussing this with the three black audience members, the young teacher said, “I’d like to see Lander give a book reading to a room full of non-white people. Somehow I think the reactions would be much different.”

But, then, when I asked if I could use her name in this article, she replied, “I work for white people. I don’t want to give you my name and get fired!”

Saxon Baird is an Editorial Intern at Campus Progress and a recent graduate of Portland State University.

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