Freeman: Whitness Blog #1

I feel like the typical white person sitting here listing to One Direction and Carly Rae Jepsen writing my blog.  When thinking about whiteness or being a white individual the last thing that I think about is the advantages that I get from my skin color.  Advantages from being a white individual come so naturally people just seem to just go with them, studying the topic gives us a good chance to realize just how many advantages whiteness may provide.  However Frankenburg states that there is an emerging perception that being white no longer means automatic privilege, particularly as demographics change in the United States and as some whites perceives themselves to be in the minority.  This has led some whites to feel threatened and “out of place.” (Martin, 2012, p. 194). This shows that white people may think about the meaning of whiteness more than we think, and also that losing this sense of privilege would really make white people question themselves.  I think the blog www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com does a great job of showing what whiteness really is in a way that everyone can understand. 

I spent tons of time on this blog looking at funny entries that explain what whiteness is, and found three that I really liked.  They are (# 106) Facebook, (#35) The Daily Show/Colbert Report, and (#91) San Francisco.  The blog about Facebook talks about how Social Networking sites have been embraced by white people since their inception. Because these sites use profile pages, white people can more efficiently judge friends and future friends on their taste in film, books, music, and inspirational quotes, and make Facebook more important and kind of a more sophisticated thing than it is.  White people tend to do the same thing with The Daily Show/ Colbert Report.  The blog talks about how white people say things like “Oh, I don’t watch the news,” they will say. “I watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. You know, studies show that viewers of those shows are more educated than people who watch Fox News or CNN.”  I found this funny because people think that they are really sophisticated watching a show that anyone who has cable can watch.  The final blog post that I liked was about San Francisco the blog talks about how White people like to vacation in San Francisco because it has beautiful architecture, fantastic food, and it is near the water. They like to live in San Francisco because of its abundance of Non Profit Organizations, Expensive Sandwiches, Wine, political outlook, and most importantly its diversity.  Again it shows how white people feel that they are so sophisticated going to an artsy city that many people of every race visit each year. 

Overall I think that people need to realize that being white doesn’t mean anything.  It shouldn’t give people a sense of whiteness or power over anyone because it is something that you didn’t do anything to get.  Being white or black or any other race is a matter of chance, it shouldn’t give someone any advantages over other people. 

I think this clip is funny and gives a good look at how others feel about white people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ3dk6KAvQM

References

Clander. (2011, July 31). #106 Facebook. Retrieved from Stuff White People Like. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/07/31/106-facebook/

Clander. (2008, January 28). #35 The Daily Show/ Colbert Report. Retrieved from Stuff White People Like. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/28/35-the-daily-showcolbert-report/

Clander. (2008, March 23). #91 San Francisco.  Retrieved from Stuff White People Like. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/23/91-san-francisco/

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2012). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th edition). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.