The six-week old blog Stuff White People Like is making satirical waves. Racialicious opines here and The Assimilated Negro lands a two-part interview with the creator of the blog, Christian Lander (1, 2).

[The title of the latter blog reminds me of the convent-educated, British-accented Pakistani Auntie drawling, "Darlings, we've been neutralized."]

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!”

And what are those things? Recycling, expensive sandwiches, standing still at concerts, Toyota Priuses, natural medicine, irony, public radio, breakfast places, vegetarianism, organic foods and being an expert on ethnic cultures are just a few.

Hmm, that last paragraph sounds like…me! *sigh* I admit it, I am a YUMI.*

It also reminds me of my second-gen desi friend who deadpanned, “I’m so white. Seriously. I watch Jon Stewart every night, would never dream of getting a satellite hook-up for GEO TV, and can’t even understand Punjabi. Then I fell in love with and married a FOB who didn’t even know what a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich was. Go figure.”

In his interview Lander says, “The minorities who write in usually love the blog, they are also usually the first to go after white people who say that the blog is racist. The best response I’ve seen so far is someone who said, ‘There’s a big difference, you haven’t been denied a job because you like Yoga and Expensive Sandwiches.’ I think that put things into perspective pretty quickly.”

Considering that whites are set to become a minority in the US by 2050 – and already have in states like California and Texas – we’re in for some very interesting shifts in cultural perspectives of what it means to be American.

*Young, Urban, Muslim Intellectual