Friday, December 11th, 2009...12:14 pm

#145: Don’t Be White (Or Just Act Like It)

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The new Pew Research study on The Millennials aka The Evil Young is out, and among the findings that weren’t too boring for me to focus on was the one about the younger generation being more diverse than previous generations of Americans.

Pew quantified that statement with actual rising numbers of young people who are Hispanic, black etc., as opposed to plain old boring white, but I think there’s a qualitative, gestalterific difference here too. Younger people, whether or not they actually are white, are less likely to want to be white, to try to act white, to value what’s whitest about American culture.

I would go so far as to say that the list of Stuff White People Like, constructed, not coincidentally, by a young ‘un, might as well be called Stuff That Is Really Bland and Dorky, Except You’re So Boring — and Okay, I’ll Say It, White — You Think It’s Cool.

In fact, now that I think about it, How Not To Act Old might also be called How Not To Act Boring, Lame, or Embarrassingly White. It’s old-acting to be racist, for instance, or tell racist jokes. Definitely way old to belong to any club or frequent any establishment that might as well be whites-only. It was not-old to vote for Obama, old to back McCain (Pew’s numbers bear this out). Not-old to groove on rap, old to heehaw to country. Not-old to date or marry inter-racially; old to stick to your own kind.

The BBC is too white, a charge against which they’ve actively tried to campaign. In fact, much of the liberal media is too white, too male, and too damn old. I could go on, but then I’d have to write Stuff Too White People Like, and I think that’s been pretty much covered.

The point: Go ahead and be white, if you must. Just don’t be so damn proud of it.

white_lion

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