viz.

The person pictured below is Christian Lander, one of the authors of the much-discussed blog, Stuff White People Like.

Some love the blog, some find it offensive. I fall into the latter category because I think to write about "Stuff White People Like" (which feels grammatically wrong somehow), even satirically, is to exclude non-whites from the things that the titular white people like, like recycling, pricey sandwiches, dogs, kitchen gadgets, and Mos Def (?). While I admire the project of poking fun at the Gen X and Y Brooklyn- and Echo Park-dwelling hipsterati who have more money than actual sense, I do think it's a bit irresponsible to present such a limited view of whiteness and declare it ALL whiteness. What does it mean to the white person who rejects the Prius or can't afford a $300 Kitchenaid waffle iron (or never learned to ride a bicycle as a kid because their family couldn't afford one)? What about the person of color who practices alternative medicine, or lives by the water? Or the white woman who loathed Juno?

What I do like about what Lander has done with his most recent entry, as well as the recycling entry is that he has made himself complicit with the white people he's lampooning by making himself the visual representation of the problem he's diagnosing (as opposed to using the stock images he usually utilizes). Also of note is the Star of David on Lander's t-shirt in the recycling picture. If you read the comments on the Sarah Silverman entry, you'll see that there is some (uncomfortable) debate as to whether Jewish people are technically white (ouch, I know). He seems to be answering that question by posing in that t-shirt (outside of a Whole Foods, natch) for the recycling entry.

Maybe this Lander kid is smarter than I thought.