White People Like Stuff

So, the blog Stuff White People Like continues to grow as a phenomenon. The site's over 15M hits and counting, and Christian -- who I interviewed before he got a publicist and media gag order -- has apparently managed to cash in his Wire-inspired Moment of Zen to the tune of a quarter million dollars or so. As those crazy caucasians like to say: Huzzah!

The Houston Chronicle got in on the action yesterday and name-dropped TAN as THE progenitor of racial conflict. Aww. That's very kind of them.

Proof is in the pudding, so suffice to say SWPL has more lovers than haters. But the backlashers are getting restless. To wit: The Root and The New Republic put down extended efforts at shooting The Man down in his tracks. I'm a SWPL fan, but The Root's piece is a pretty thorough critique from the black perspective. The site might prove a final data point to flesh out an Eminem Effect or whatever, where black backlash rises according to a white person's success at exploiting a pillar of black culture. Cause making fun of white people was around long before Jazz and Hip Hop, knahmean? Sheeit, we know white people better than we know ourselves. Cracka-ass Cracka is like our second language. Christian has some hot lyrics, but for an audience raised on Pryor, Murphy, Rock, Chappelle etc. ... it's gonna be weird to see the "sensation" in it all.

Anyrace ... maybe there's an "Obama Effect" on all race-related content and media this year. Between The Wire and The Big O, I've been getting a lot of dap high-fives from random white people on the street. There's definitely something special in the air

'Stuff White People Like' Book Sold To Random House [NY Observer]
Race-Related Blog Causing Controversy [Houston Chronicle]
Why I Don't Like Stuff White People Like [The Root]
From Blogs To Riches [Washington Post]
Why White People Like SWPL [The New Republic]