#18 Awareness
January 23, 2008 by clander
An interesting fact about white people is that they firmly believe that all of the world’s problems can be solved through “awareness.” Meaning the process of making other people aware of problems, and then magically someone else like the government will fix it.
This belief allows them to feel that sweet self-satisfaction without actually having to solve anything or face any difficult challenges. Because, the only challenge of raising awareness is people not being aware. In a worst case scenario, if you fail someone doesn’t know about the problem. End of story.
What makes this even more appealing for white people is that you can raise “awareness” through expensive dinners, parties, marathons, selling t-shirts, fashion shows, concerts, eating at restaurants and bracelets. In other words, white people just have to keep doing stuff they like, EXCEPT now they can feel better about making a difference.
Raising awareness is also awesome because once you raise awareness to an acceptable, aribtrary level, you can just back off and say “Bam! did my part. Now it’s your turn. Fix it.”
So to summarize - you get all the benefits of helping (self satisfaction, telling other people) but no need for difficult decisions or the ensuing criticism (how do you criticize awareness?). Once again, white people find a way to score that sweet double victory.
Popular things to be aware of: The Environment, Diseases like Cancer and AIDS, Africa, Poverty, Anorexia, Homophobia, Midde School Field Hockey/Lacrosse teams, Drug Rehab, and political prisoners.
vancouver = capital of awareness, but they just come off as annoying, I believe in most of their causes but all the white guys with dreadlocks are making me more and more of a conservative everyday
I pooped my pants
YOUR SO FUCKING HOT LET ME FUCK YOU
creating awareness is just one step in making change. i can’t speak for other white people, but i’ve always seen it as the first step in starting a movement. unless the mass population is aware of a problem, they can and will not do anything to try and help. if you inform them, and then provide them with a way to contribute to some sort of cause then you are promoting positive social action within your community.
of course, if you are just being the informer, it can seem annoying and self-serving to others. but it does a hell of a lot more for the world to live in a place where people are informed and are making conscious decisions about where they spend their money rather than sitting at home like me and reading lists of what white people like.
i have no problem for the dreaded white man or woman. I have never met one who was racist and just listened to marley and smoked weed, however it’s beyond me that someone would be able to make a sound judgment on another strictly based upon the way they style their hair.
Okay, we get it. You are better than other white people.
They should add abstinence education and pro-life activism to the list of popular things to be aware of.
You completely miss the point of this blog.
what’s a blog?
I just don’t see how “Having no white identity” escaped the top posts? I mean that’s what liberalism and white guilt are all about. If you hate American whites so much I would take a look at where you are living (presumedly America) and start shutting the hell up. Everything you have is this country was won with european blood and bullets. To think otherwise is a serious disregard for history.
I just don’t see how “Having no white identity” escaped the top posts? I mean that’s what liberalism and white guilt are all about. If you hate American whites so much I would take a look at where you are living (presumably America) and start shutting the hell up. Everything you have is this country was won with European blood and bullets. To think otherwise in a serious disregard for history.
Jesus fuck. How did you get so stupid? Did you wear a Tupperware bowl instead of the helmet? And it is nothing but sheer cruelty to post your ignorance TWICE. I’ve been running into your dumbness throughout these threads and seriously, it’s like you live on another planet — Planet I Can Make Up Any Shit I Like and Say It’s the Truth. And I’m Proud of That.
Jesus fuck.
[...] all the problems in the world. To make himself feel better he likes being socially aware of things Post #18. However he spends most of his time indulging in the arts and going out for dinner so he has little [...]
[...] #18 Awareness [...]
Yall aware i dont be having a job?! Nah give me one!
I’m getting pregnant in an effort to make people aware of global warming.
What an excellent entry. And also, please don’t forget how important it is for white people to raise awareness about racism. In fact, in our view, raising awareness is what it’s all about for successful White Anti-Racists.
Sincerely,
the whiteantiracist team
So true! I’m white, but I agree that by and large most white people are full of it.
And anytime I see a white man with dreadlocks I can guarantee he will be an insufferable prick.
Hopefully white people will be bred out of existence over the next millenia… we have to be the most annoying and hypocritical race ever!
To paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill, “The White race is the worst race there is, except for all other races.”
Do you mean this? You want your own children to be wiped out? We white people are being devoured by the rest of the world: we are the geese that laid the golden eggs. What a mess the world will be in when we are gone. No more aid when there is a famine, for example, no more medical developments, oh my God, do I have to say this stuff?
I saw a group of white people on a street corner trying to raise awareness of Stuff White People Like!!!
LOL, good one
I’m going to blog this entry to raise awareness of it.
wow - this my biggest pet peeve about being white - I get it - I’m aware of cancer and I sure the hell am aware about breasts - I can’t get anymore aware no matter how much pink you wear.
[...] post that makes it pretty clear what kind of whites they’re satirizing is the one on Awareness. Here’s the first paragraph: An interesting fact about white people is that they firmly [...]
You are doing Zen’s work here in raising my awareness of my awareness.
Don’t forget depression. Sorry, Depression, with a capital D. It’s important to be aware of, also. White people love to be depressed, take “meds” for it, and to talk about it with other Depression sufferers.
I can’t stand that whole crock of shit called “Depression”. If it’s not a physical disruption in the brain, that means the person is just plain weak minded and has fallen into psychological pitfalls.
stuffblackpeoplelike - eating watermelon! hahaha!!!
stuffarabpeoplelike - pumping oil! hahaha!!!
stuffblackpeoplelike - gang warfare! hahaha!!!
stuffmexicanpeoplelike - eating beans! hahaha!!!
stuffchinesepeoplelike - shooting heroin! hahaha!!!
stuffblackpeoplelike - welfare! hahaha!!!
stuffjewishpeoplelike - keeping money! hahaha!!!
stuffmexicanpeoplelike - wearing sombreros! hahaha!!!
stuffchinesepeoplelike - eating rice! hahaha!!!
stuffarabpeoplelike - kissing goats! hahaha!!!
stuffmexicanpeoplelike - wearing sombreros! hahaha!!!
stuffblackpeoplelike - sniffing glue! hahaha!!!
aren’t i funny and clever!!!
don’t you dare call me a racist!!!
RACIST
he dared you
COCKJEW!
Did you ever stop to think about the fact that those same people who are raising awareness today are going to be the big decision makers in the future? Many of the individuals you see on street corners, or those organizing dinners and other events to ‘make themselves feel good’ are also actively working to change policies to put an end to the problems that they are spreading awareness about.
Think about it this way: you could either go on your own, and try to do what you can to make a difference, or you can do that, while at the same time, holding large events to attract people with a similar goal, while also informing those who were not aware of the problem. Now which makes more sense?
Wow. Gotta love the arrogance of college kids.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. So let me see if I understand. The “big decision makers today” were the hippies, freaks, losers, and general run-of-the-mill-anti-establishment hemorrhoids that were “raising awareness” 40 years ago. My friend, all the yellow bracelets in the world can’t save you from the intellectual diaspora in which you’re exiled.
wow. your writing makes my brain tingle.
i think he is talking about people who DONT actually do anything about the cause they are aware about. there are great “aware” people who actually take action. this doesnt make it ok for pretension people to act like gods for wearing a bracelet on their wrists and then go road rage 5 minutes later. what am i talking about. your stupidity has infiltrated my brain.
yeah the white guy with dreadlocks! yeah the worst is when he is racist and hates blacks! but he loves Bob Marley and he likes smoking weed!
[...] all the problems in the world. To make himself feel better he likes being socially aware of things Post #18. However he spends most of his time indulging in the arts and going out for dinner so he has little [...]
I’m white and you are exactly right. Never listen to anyone who’s not willing to go to jail for their beliefs.
Autism. You forgot about autism awareness. It’s all the rage in suburbs these days.
Save Darfur. One campaign with Bono. Live Aids. Live 8. EJ (Environmental Justice).
Best when done with a token black friend in tow. I know - it is my role.
I think this is true about wealthy Americans in general. “Awareness” is all the rage in Hollywood, and there are people of every color spouting that shit.
I think the point of this issue is to get over white guilt. I think we all agree that it’s all well and good to be aware, and useless as shit if you don’t go do something about it (”spreading awareness” doesn’t really count, unless in conjunction with other action). Yes we all need to know the true story behind the crap our government does, what we’re putting in our bodies and what we’re being told by media sources. Yes many of the stories are sad and make us feel sympathetic, but have nothing to do with us in any immediate sense so we feel ok with forgetting them pretty quickly. Knowing these stories, however, puts you in a position of responsibility, not a position of power. Additionally, being and white and privileged doesn’t make you a bad person; being educated and apathetic does.
Sorry if that’s clichéd “white people speak”, but I’m pretty sure it applies even if you change the color in the above paragraph.
I am still reading the blog so I don’t know if this has already been covered but white people love Oprah, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama- or is this covered under diversity
Isn’t raising awareness very relevant to how African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement abolished discrimination and how apartheid was defeated in South Africa?
Well played, blogosphere.
@#24 Anonymous
Um, no, it’s not relevant. People took their asses out into the streets and got beaten and killed for those rights. They did worlds more than merely stand on a pedestal and “inform” people. They did more than “raise awareness.” They made a difference.
And, that, dear anonymous, is all the difference in the world.
There weren’t only white people in that march morons
Yeah, white people do love to raise awareness for everything. If only any of these people actually did something useful to solve the problem.
Let’s have an example then genius? What is “something useful”?
This blog should really be called, “Stuff Insufferable White Elitist Liberal Democrats Like.”
(But that would sort of take the blush off the rose, wouldn’t it?)
If you read it with that understanding however, it is hilariously accurate. And any defense of the nonsense on display here, I guarantee you, is from a White Liberal…who has been summarily busted.
a war en ess—the essential war.
ignorance is bliss, and awareness is the shortest route to really feeling white…and that applies to you people who say “this only applies to lib caucs, or say “I’m a nerd, not a jock”, saying stuff like that makes you sound so white it boosts my awareness of my own whiteness to new levels.
…off to ride my recumbent to venezuela.
to build a church in the daytime, and drink Polar beer at night where the other missionaries won’t have as authentic an experience as me.
hahaha! i like that “africa” made the list of things to be aware of. because people don’t realize it exists. maybe we should work on making them aware that it isn’t just one big country. if there’s one thing that drives me crazy, it is supposedly educated people who say “africa” when asked to name a third world country. perhaps that would make a good post - white people who think africa is a country instead of a continent.
oh, and for the complete and utter moron who keeps posting that list of racial stereotypes and then saying, “don’t you dare call me a racist” - have you paid no attention to anything but your own self-righteous self (how’s that for redundancy)? the author of this blog is WHITE. just like you, mr. “non-racist.” so shut it.
[...] Number 18 : Awareness [...]
(I’m really sorry, but I have to post this incognito, as daring to raise a word against the kind of smugness/bullshit piety as this article expounds is like a Rabbi speaking out against the Brownshirts in 1931 Berlin. Political Correctness is the opiate of the masses)
Hmmm…
It was the Jews from, ooh, 1000 AD; then the Saracens during the Crusades, then the Jews, then the Protestants - briefly, ’til the Protestants won, & wherefore it quickly became the other way around; in the 17 & early 18th Century it was the Irish, Scots and the Jews; I forget about the 19th Century - oh yeah, the Abolishionists and the Jews!
In the early 20th Century it was Yellow Peril, then it was Communism (invented by the Jews), then it was Hippies (Commies/Fags) and now it’s… us! And no matter what salient hard facts you throw in the face of the New Age Politically Correct Bigot/Racist (Farrakhan, Malcolm X, who didn’t want any aid for their cause from whites, who definitely had the power to supply it, because they were white!) as to the hypocrisy of their stance, they, in much the same manner as a Scientologist, will spin-doctor aside your protests with the most nebulous, oblique bafflegab non-sequiters designed to utterly cloud the issue (as did/does the KKK) until they’ve just plumb tuckered you out and you retreat exhausted though you both still know the real truth but only one of you will admit it.
So now it’s ‘us’? We’re the new Jews/Gypsies/Yellow Peril/Commies/Fags/Sand Niggers (Oh, look! The Saracens are back!)/ what have you, who can do no right?
I’m sorry, I missed something… no, you did; Scapegoatism is still Scapegoatism.
“(I’m really sorry, but I have to post this incognito, as daring to raise a word against the kind of smugness/bullshit piety as this article expounds is like a Rabbi speaking out against the Brownshirts in 1931 Berlin. Political Correctness is the opiate of the masses)”
Bullshit.
You have a degree of anommity anyway on the internet. It not like your providing home adress. Why not at least use a pseudonym.
The worse than can happen to you is someone DISAGREE with you.
Not only that but you continue on hidding behind a history of perscution in order to proclaim your self righteous and denounce those who disagree with you. In other words your are a Hypercrit doing the exact same thing your accusing your opponents of doing: labeling people to dismiss their arguement.
Now that is low.
Haha, you’re crazy! I don’t care how much you’ve read or what you know, because on the surface of all that, you’re crazy! BUCKWILD! I can’t even read what you’re saying. It’s like a letter from Charles Manson, where you can kind of understand that there’s something going on back there but then you realize you’re just cobbling a story together out of pieces like any human would. CRAZY.
Hahaha. I love that picture. Marching through the streets to end poverty. Hilarious.
If those people were to take the same amount of time and use it to put in more hours at the Fidelity/Prudential/WaMu, they could DONATE that money to a poor family. But, I suppose, private charity is an oxymoron.
Those same people are on the local school boards, village councils, PTA boards, etc. Instead of taking their property taxes and redistributing them into poorer school districts, a policy that has been suggested since Brown V Board, they spend all this time making everyone around them aware that poverty does, in fact, exist.
This is satire at its best. Thank you.
@28 Somebody. Read above. Those are two useful things.
Let’s not forget Genocide.
[...] Hollywood’s portrayal of blacks to the American prison system. As much as white people love awareness, they sure can’t stand responsibility. And when a white person hears Chuck D rap about how [...]
Also, buy stuff to showcase awareness (product RED, ahem, livestrong bracelets, reuseable grocery bags from Whole Foods etc).
I used to have a funny rubber stamp that said
Be Alert… The World Needs More Lerts.
I feel I’m both a Lert and a Ware.
[...] #18 Awareness [...]
[...] the final word on critical pedagogy, courtesy of the blog Stuff White People Like. Find the links here and [...]
another win-win: if you succeed, people know and you win. If you fail, no one knows = small loss.
Everyone you talk to “is aware” so you’re continually surrounded by people who remind you that you are winning
I love this blog, and this post is so spot-on.
If you look at the financials of groups like the cancer three-day walks, they spend oodles on the logistics of hosting people to do these walks, and not much on actual research towards a cure. It’s all about “awareness.”
You speak deep truths, sir. I’m glad I found your blog!
I hate white people, they are the vermon of the earth. It not be me and my pure race black brothers
[...] writing about life in general are overlooked. I guess this goes along with the love of raising awareness. [...]
Statistically, the rich whites and professional protester college students depicted in this (hilarious) blog give very little to actual charitable causes, either in the way of money or time. Most of the practical work of helping people (at home and abroad) goes to the unwashed, fish-on-car-having masses who don’t do a good enough job letting everyone know how AWARE they are. That is why these uber-white people see government as a way to solve everything- it doesn’t involve them doing anything, but the credit they get for complaining about lack of government support for such-and-such is off the charts.
All that awareness raising (Bono!) doesn’t usually hurt anything, but if everyone was like Bono, no one would actually do anything substantial to end poverty, other than buy Macbooks and raise more awareness in between spending more of their own millions.
[...] that allegedly blows Obama’s out of the water, because I fail to see how her raising awareness of childhood immunization and Gulf War Syndrome, Hillarycare (a massive failure), and convincing a [...]
Oh dear… Lots of people with an oppinion on why white people suck. The best part of racism… Yes I aggree that while merely spreading awarness doesn’t have a direct impact, I know that without such awareness no one can make any sort of impact period.
Besides… It’s not like “white people” own the idea of spreading awarness.
And since when has Bono been the white peoples mascotte? Dear lord they are effed now.
“What makes this even more appealing for white people is that you can raise “awareness” through expensive dinners, parties, marathons, selling t-shirts, fashion shows, concerts, eating at restaurants and bracelets. In other words, white people just have to keep doing stuff they like, EXCEPT now they can feel better about making a difference.”
I think I love you. This is so awesomely true.
I remember “white people” on TV discussing global warming and talking about how taking the cell phone charger out of the outlet can really save electricity. And being really excited about that.
Yep, that’ll bring the glaciers back.
Thank you for this, it was hilarious.
This is also the explanation for #8, since Obama is Mr. Awareness.
awareness is only a stepping stone to finding solutions. I can think of one such person who was fighting for awareness. His name was Malcolm Little. Another one would be Martin Luther King.