Sunday, March 30, 2008

Just How Much Cream is in That Twinkie?

A topic of conversation (and humor) among some students and staff at New Urban Arts (where I work) has been the "Stuff White People Like" blog. There are a number of interesting topics that the blog could be a jumping off point for me to babble about (white privilege, gentrification, identity politics, class etc. etc.), but I'll spare you all any extended thoughts.

As funny as the blog is, my biggest beef is that it refers to a pretty privileged class and doesn't really get into how complex whiteness is in this country and how it's constructed. Of course, I don't think that's the responsibility/intent of this particular blogger. It's pretty entertaining and has us talking about race and identity in our studio community, which is pretty cool in and of itself.

So for shits and giggles, I decided to rate my own "whiteness" using a 1-5 scale for each item. I'm assuming that each item is weighted equally and I did my best to interpret questions that didn't directly refer to me as a non-white person (I'm Korean) e.g. being the only white person in a room. Check it out here. I'll keep updating it as I learn more about myself and as more items get added.

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