“The principal forms of our physical and social environment are fixed in representations…and we ourselves are fashioned in relation to them.” - Serge Moscovici
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Portrayals of whiteness
For my discussion topic I touch on whiteness and a depiction of a "culture of wealth." Here are a couple of examples of that. The first is a blog called "White Whine." I linked to the "best of" page of the site, which takes screenshots from facebook and twitter of people complaining about "white problems". While I totally agree that the things these people are complaining about are petty and insignificant, especially in comparison to actual issues like oppression, I take issue with these middle-class and upper-class qualms being classified as "white problems." I think that Reddit (an online community) approaches the same issue much better, with it's subreddit "First World Problems." Here, the same sort of petty complaints are laughed at, but they leave race out of it. The top post today is: "I gave a homeless a dollar, but I felt that he did not thank me sincerely."
Along the same lines, here is a video from a few years back called "white people problems." While it totally made me lol in meyer today (to the point where people were looking at me funny) I still had to question why these problems are seen as "white" and not just "upper class." (Sidebar - what's up with the black video girl?)
I'm also posting a classic clip from the Chappelle Show called "white people dancing." Chappelle explores whether the stereotype that white people can't dance is true - or whether they just respond to different instruments. Also, watch Chappelle's reaction to the Black police officer at the end. "...I'm from the suburbs, man. I can't help it."
Sorry to post so many things this week, but I just have one last one! http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/ is a site that has sparked some controversy amongst my friends. I think it is a funny satire about a very oblivious white couple who believes they are well liked in the black community. Other friends of mine have argued for the "Chappelle effect" here, and worry that people laugh at it for the wrong reasons. Other friends have taken offense due to the fact that they believe white people wrote the blog.
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