Stuff White People Like (sometimes known by the initialism SWPL) was a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

that took a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

aim at the interests of

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

left-leaning Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commonl ...

, city-dwelling,

white people White is a Race (human categorization), racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry. It is also a Human skin color, skin color specifier, although the definition can var ...

". The blog was created in January 2008 by a white

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Christian Lander Stuff White People Like (sometimes known by the initialism SWPL) was a blog that took a satirical aim at the interests of North American "left-leaning, city-dwelling, white people". The blog was created in January 2008 by a white Canadian, Christ ...

, a

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copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to incre ...

who grew up in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and graduated from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Montreal. Lander co-authored the site with his

Filipino Canadian The Filipino Canadians (); () are Canadians who have a Filipino descent or ethnicity. The Filipino Canadians is the second largest subgroup of the overseas Filipinos, surpassed only by the United States, and one of the fastest-growing minorit ...

friend Myles Valentin, after Valentin teased Lander for watching the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

television series ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

''. Lander's blog became popular very quickly, registering over 300,000 daily hits and over 40 million total hits by the end of September 2008. It has not been updated since 2010.

Summary

Although the blog "spurred an outpouring from those who view it as offensive and racist", it was not about the interests of all white people, but rather a stereotype of affluent, environmentally and socially conscious, anti-corporate white North Americans, who typically hold a degree in the

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

. Lander claimed to be lampooning contemporary versions of

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

/ hipster culture, and jokingly referred to other classes and

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...

s of white people as "the wrong kind of white people". Despite the site's satirical edge, Lander regarded the people he described with affection and numbered himself among them, describing himself as "a self-aware, left-wing person who's not afraid to recognize the

selfishness Selfishness is being concerned excessively or exclusively for oneself or one's own advantage, pleasure, or welfare, regardless of others. Selfishness is the opposite of ''altruism'' or selflessness, and has also been contrasted (as by C. S. Lewis ...

and contradictions that come on the left". The initialism "SWPL" has been adopted in some circles as a (usually

pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hosti ...

) shorthand term for the type of people depicted on the blog.

Publication

A book (''Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions'') was released on July 1, 2008. Lander is listed as the sole author of the book, although some of its content comes from the blog posts written by Valentin. The book remained on ''The New York Times'' bestseller list for months. Lander was reportedly given a $300,000 advance by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, the book's publisher. He released a sequel (''Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast from Seattle's Sweaters to Maine's Microbrews'') on November 23, 2010.

References

{{reflist

External links

Stuff White People Like

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

blog 2008 non-fiction books American satirical websites Internet properties established in 2008 Random House books Stereotypes of urban people Stereotypes of white Americans European-Canadian culture Works about White Americans 1978 births Living people

Summary

Publication

See also

References

External links