#71 Being the only white person around
February 20, 2008 by clander
This concept ties heavily into post #7 Diversity and post #19 Travelling, but is important that you fully understand how white people view authenticity and experience.
In most situations, white people are very comforted by seeing their own kind. However, when they are eating at a new ethnic restaurant or traveling to a foreign nation, nothing spoils their fun more than seeing another white person.
Many white people will look into the window of an ethnic restaurant to see if there are other white people in there. It is determined to be an acceptable restaurant if the white people in there are accompanied by ethnic friends. But if there is a table occupied entirely by white people, it is deemed unacceptable.
The arrival of the “other white people” to either restaurants or vacation spots instantly means that lines will grow, authenticity will be lost, and the euphoria of being a cultural pioneer will be over.
Being aware of this can be extremely valuable in your efforts to gain the trust of white friends and co-workers. If you bring a white person to an ethnic restaurant and another white person (or group of white people) shows up, you can lose all respect and trust that you have worked so hard to acquire. Do your best to find a table with a divider, or ask the waiter to put future white people out of sight.
Note: This does not apply to night clubs.
the note about night clubs is very true. i’ll be damned if you’ll catch a white person at a black night spot. also, they won’t go to black restaurants, but asian ones are always a mark of culture and discernment, and usually are more vegetarian or vegan friendly.
I kinda though this was understood…Whites like to be the only one so long as they are not the only one around Blacks…I think Whites have this innate urge to feel like they “discovered ” something first…I call it Christopher Columbus Syndrome
I’ve been using “Marco Polo complex” but I like “Christopher Columbus syndrome as well. Speaking as a white dude who has lived abroad for most of the past 10 years (In Japan no less!), I have to say that this is my favorite post on the blog - and there are lots of good ones. There is nothing more demoralizing that spending weeks and months searching someplace like Tokyo or Beijing for that one cool club/restaurant/bar that has been untainted by other foreigners, only to go and find some other white guy already sitting there, polluting up the place. It’s like having your tires slashed.
I understand completely! I travel to Japan a lot, and never go to Roppongi or other places white people frequent. It’s only now that I am in my fifties that I sometimes use a Western-style toilet when given the choice in the restroom. Even in the US, if I am , say, in a Malaysian restaurant, I insist on ordering stuff that the waiter tells me I won’t like, then eating it (this got me sick once). It’s so funny!
That is soooo cute. I had to chuckle when I read it. I don’t know who came up with this blog but it be banging. Lol
Christopher Columbus was a Spaniard - not a white dude.
Cristobal Colon was his actual name and it was “white-ified” through history.
But I love the phrase anyway.
-Your Friendly White Know-It-All!
He was a European (born in Genoa). He shopped around and eventually launched his voyage of exploration for the Spanish crown. Even if he had been a Spaniard, he would still have been white.
The Spanish were about as ‘white’ as you could get and were definitely the most brutal and rapacious exploiters of the new world. The French looked good by comparison and the English were downright enlightened.
It sounds funny now, but back then the Spanish were pretty much the premier power of Europe (and thus, consequently, in the world) Tiny bands of spanish conquistadors wandered throughout central and south america, wiping out vast empires and sometimes entire ethnicities of natives. Those that weren’t destroyed were enslaved.
A group more rapacious than Republicans? How’d that happen? Don’t tell Harry Reid.
Not so, friend!
Spain was/is very diverse. The northwestern part is known as Gallicia has roots with Gaelic or Celtic tribes. The southern part has a heavy Arab influence due the Moor invasion during the Middle Ages. Much the same way as the lower part of Italy has Moorish influence in the southern region. “Spaniards” from the south tended to be more olive, and have dark and curly hair. Hmmm…far from being as “white” as you could get.
I wouldn’t think that “olive” and “dark and curly hair” make you “far from being white as you could get.” Also, trust me, I’ve worked in Admissions, you don’t get minority credit from being from ANY part of Spain. Weirdly, you also don’t get it for being from Iran… but you do from Iraq… that’s where the line is drawn. ?? In any case, I think that under ANY modern classification, Columbus would be called “white.” That’s fortunate or unfortunate depending on how you look at it, but I don’t think he could ever be considered anything else.
Everyone looked pretty damn white the last time I went to Spain.
The original poster is probably an American of anglo-saxon decent, who likely has a poor education and thus unaware that in Europe there is not the same concept of “white” as there is in America.
So let me educated you, my ignorant American friend. In Europe white people are identified by their ethnic or national group, this includes people who live in Spain, which has several ethnic groups. Beyond that there are Asians, Indians (American), Africans, Arabs, (white) Americans and Gypsies.
American tourists are only tolerated above Gypsies because they can spend money. In private most Europeans will crack jokes about Americans, can’t understand why we are so wasteful and why everything in America has to be super-sized.
Actually, I’ve heard that people in Europe, and in fact all over the world think the most interesting thing about Americans is that they themselves are super-sized. We’re clearly the fattest people in the world, maybe in history. When you spend any time outside the U.S. and then come back, it’s the first thing you notice.
Another thing Europeans notice is our teeth. That cuts both ways. Many Europeans who could clearly afford better have horrible looking teeth, especially the Brits. If you whip out a toothbrush in a restroom in the UK, the other people there look at you like you’re a nut case. To each her own.
that is some what true. But when it comes down to it, Europeans do like americans. It’s certain segmetns of society that europeans don’t like…i.e. president bush and his evangelical/neocon followers
shows you don’t know your history. Columbus was Italian.
Spain was conquered and ruled by the Moors for centuries. don’t know who the Moors were? They were black. that’s why most spaniards today have dark hair, eyes and skin. Also, that is why the southern Italians have dark hair and eyes. because Constantine wouldn’t stay out of Africa.
look guy, you’re wrong again. The spanish weren’t the most brutal. that was the english white guy’s job. the spanish tried to mix and mingle with the people instead of just trying to kill them. secondly, the demographic collapse was not do to the disease b/c the spanish slept in the same room w/ their livestock. (thus, helping them build up an immunity to the diseases.) get your facts right white boy! read the colombian exchange or look it up. and mr. colombus was most likely a con-artist and that wasn’t his real name either. (he’s still an ass.) but you are right about the spanish being white. peninsulares, that was the “popular” term for white dudes from spain. eventually a sort of caste system formed, a hierarchy derived from skin color and percent spaniard blood. Hence, racist white dudes.
Oh you Americans, always obsessed with race.
Us brutal English white guys are more into class.
The Spanish weren’t as “white” as you think…the Moorish occupation of much of Spain led to much inter-mixing and many Spaniards are dark-haired and olive-skinned as a result…however, you’re right…they were the worst the New World saw.
What may I ask again is Olive skin concidering the only olives i see in my green salad are green…
Actually…Columbus was an Italian…hired by the Queen of Spain to go to find a faster trade route to India and the east and cut out the Arabs out of the trade route called the Silk Road. His benefactors were Spanish, so his name was converted to Spanish for the history books in Spain…then anglocized later by English speaking historians.
He was Genoese, not Spanish… Genoa is now a part of Italy.
That is because most white people cannot dance.
Vegan restaraunts are from hell. I usually order a potato. You just have to boil it… even vegans can manage that!
I pooped my pants
Not true… I went to the restaurant “Farmer Brown” in SF and it was predominantly white, same goes for “Georgia Brown’s” in Washington DC.
“also, they won’t go to black restaurants,’
Haven’t spent much time in the American South, have you?
Amen, DawgFan (although I’m a GATech fan so not “Amen” about that!). I think this post is dead on, but my favorite restaurants are the ones where I’m the only white person and everybody else is black. And if the restaurant is owned and staffed by only one little old black lady who tells me what I’m going to be having for lunch instead of letting me order, I’m freakin’ in love.
On the other hand, I think this is part of the very weird relationship white southerners have always had with black ones. In so many ways we’re much more integrated with each other than occurs in the north. It’s just the quiet, subtle, probably less-important ways, and unfortunately it’s often overshadowed by the blatant racism that also exists down here.
But still, that part of this post is dead wrong. Collard greens, yes please! Chicken and waffles! Just no other white people!
Love chicken and waffles!!
Great blog but I don’t like most of the shit that this blog says I’m supposed to like.
What am I? I’m so confused.
i definitely feel you there but it is important to keep in mind while reading these blogs that they only refer to a certain type of white people. these are the rich super-liberals located on the west coast and the northeast. as a matter of fact, i believe this site has more to with mind-state than race. this is why you will never see any mention of nascar or pick up trucks as stuff white people like.
Please, white people love to go to “Soul Food” establishments and be the only white people there. LoLo’s in Phoenix and “The Southern Kitchen” in Tacoma are perfect examples. If you can get “in” with a waiter or cook, you are a god. Nothing says hip like being the only white guy walking into a black restaurant and having someone in there know your name and say something ethic like “Walter, what’s up my homeboy?” to them.
lmfaooooo.
this is the best thing to ever happen to me.
i love to see white people complaining in the comments of this blog, just as they accude blacks of complaining. especially when this blog’s author is white as well.
ps: everything on here is so true
To be fair to white people, I do judge new ethnic eateries by how many people of the said ethnicity eat there. It is simply from personal experience. I have definitely been to West African restaurants with all-white clientele and not recognised any of the foods being advertised as West African. So perhaps it is an authenticity thing.Oh wait….. white people are into the street cred they get from ‘authentic’ cuisine
In Washington DC, you can definitely judge how good an Ethiopian or Somalian restaurant is by the ratio of “Georgetownies” to members of said ethnic group. If the clientele is all white, run the heck outta there Fast!
“they won’t go to black restaurants”
I don’t know about that. Soul food is catching on. And unless you’re referring specifically to African-American, Ethiopian food is HUGE.
“To be fair to white people, I do judge new ethnic eateries by how many people of the said ethnicity eat there.”
I judge it by how tastey the food is. Call me an idiot (go ahead, lots of people do, I am used to it!) BUT, I would rather have tastey Americanized rather than authentic crap.
Then again, as you say:
“Oh wait….. white people are into the street cred they get from ‘authentic’ cuisine”
African-American restaurants tend to serve lots of meat, which usually makes it difficult for white people. For example, I live in a mostly black town, and the (white) alternative weekly here (which white people all read) had a feature article last week on how there’s not enough vegetarian options here (and sometimes they say something is vegetarian, but they use meat broth in it… ugh!) Ethiopian food is in, but that’s because there’s lots of stuff with lentils in it, and they think that eating with your hands is fun and a novel experience.
Another thing white people consider very important: good service! they love to be served in zany, creative ways, and they love to make unnecessary and annoying demands on their servers!
Now…that is a good point…I do not know if it is on the list but will one of you Whites add “Customer Service”. You guys are big on it regardless of how insincere it is…maybe you think it is sincere????…I need to check into that!.
I have been a waiter for a number of years and have throught it was hysterical how white people will ask the most ridiculous things of you and then when you do them they tip you really well! Then there are other people who ask you the exact same things and then don’t tip.
Yes you are right white people love insencere customer service but when you are treated like an idiot or can’t understand your waiter I would much rather go with insencerity.
@stina
“lmfaooooo. this is the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Wow, you need to get out more. Seriously.
I have to agree with you on the white sensitivity stuff. This is a black-latino-muslim-whatever-other minority culture thing nobody should be copying.
Leave that to the pros.
White people love to make negative comments. Its only considered complaining if done by a minority. That is how we get by with so much. I love being White.
I think this is also related to white people’s desire to know about cool things before other white people know about them. This is why white people like independent music, vintage shops and DIY.
This blog reeks of
“Asian American (I am almost 99% it is Korean-American) Guy who realizes that the Fixed Action Patters of Upper Middle Class, Urban, Liberal White People” is the standard target and pinncale lifestyle to which almost all wealthy and educated people in America strive….and is a bit peeved at it so decides to poke fun of it in a light, but still somewhat derisive manner”
http://www.thefighting44s.com
Note: trimmed for repost and being long
ha ha. This blog is amazing! I have to hand to you for the use of classic white folks stock photography. ha ha. The divorce shot is outstanding.
And great post on white people in ethnic restaurants. ha ha. They peek in to see if there are other white people. ha ha ha.
Keep ‘em coming. I will read this every day.
t #9 -
are you serious?
or is that an elaborate copy-paste?
Anonymous - are you going to repost that combox comment for every single damn post here?
This white man from the post-ethnic flyover states laughs his ass off here… The “White people” being mercilessly skewered are all the ones I knew in California and most of the ones I knew in NYC.
Us Ohio hayseeds are curling our toes… the $9 sandwiches, the arts degrees, the Priusses, the love of all things obscure and ethnic for ethnic sake, the love of religion that your parents didn’t share… Every damn thing he (or she?) writes is something I could have written about my time in California.
Even if the writer is were Angry Asian Male, I can roll with all of it.
morga - it is ellaborate copy-paste-repeat. Actually, not that ellaborate at all. Keep it saved in a Word file, you can come back daily and repaste it as much!
Boring.
I get your drift on “ethnic restaurants” (FWIW, the very use of the term “ethnic” for “non-white” is a very white person thing). But in terms of vacation spots, I find white people generally want to go to an exotic place that not too many people in *their* peer group know of, but generally follow safe white-person pathways to getting to such a place, whether adventure travel agencies or boutique hotel websites, that pretty much guarantee they will end up with other white people for company (an upgraded, yuppie version of those youth hostels in Europe). But if there are actual Local People vacationing at the same places, they will stare and fall all over themselves to talk to them and later drop in “this guy I know in India/Uruguay/Madagascar says…” even if sometimes the only local folks they met were service staff who were paid to be nice to them.
The problem is the exoticizing that white folks do with “ethnic” restaurants. What you’re talking about is being the FIRST (of white people) to discover -like Columbus- a new world, or in this case, new food. White folks, according to this article, are using the opportunity to “show off” how cultured they are to other white folks, thereby loosing credibility if they are not the first of white folks to be the one who discover the exotic restaurants that you so speak of. If other white folks are there then it becomes “tainted.” With all due respect, restaurants with foods from around the world are tainted the moment white folks step in in the first place, so the idea of secluding the white folks in a corner where no one else can see them is a great idea to me. Great blog! I love it when white folks are honest!
I don’t know about this one. Where I live the only ethnic person around is the one who owns the restaurant so if I were to be the only white person in there, I would be the ONLY person in there.
Interesting. I don’t know if I fully believe it all but it’s a though. I’ll let it marinate.
“thought”
Comment number 9 is amazing because well the sheer effort it must take to write such a lenghty comment hypothesizing about the supposed race of said blogger is staggering…quite refreshing actually..so much so that i would like u to start ur own blog…maybe we can guess the race of the authors of most of the other blogs in the world tough i m a bit concerned since it will prob be a dead giveaway that 90% of them are white…oh and the white people at black clubs thing is so tru..reminds me of knocked up…”That’s crazy, I’m only allowed to let in five percent black people. He said that, that means if there’s 25 people here I get to let in one and a quarter black people. So I gotta hope there’s a midget in the crowd.”
@ “anonymous”, you’re giving anonymous a bad wrap.
The guy in the picture is one of the writers of this blog. He appears to be more of the Jewish-hipster variety of white people…and I’m sure someone will comment that Jews aren’t white people. If Natalie Portman is considered white (she’s an Israeli-American and Jewish), then this guy should be too.
Again, this blog should be called stuff yuppies like or stuff white yuppies like. I can find pleanty of mid-america white folk that don’t like any of this stuff. Just like here in L.A., there are pleanty of cats of all races that roll just like this. They are educated yuppie types that have cash to do stuff like this.
Roll down third street in between Robertson and Fairfax in Los Angeles, and you’ll see tons of people like this. And no doubt there will be some token white girl outside of one of the trendy cafe’s slanging pomeranians for $500 a pop.
thank you, finally some one who sees the light. Yes there are things on here that white people like, but guess what, so do most other cultures.
I am white but most of this stuff doesn’t appeal to me in any way. ALthough I do own a pair of new balance, which was issued to me by the military cause other companies make there shoes in foreign countries.
I was stationed in San Francisco and that is where I saw most of this stuff. But guess what there were plenty of asians and blacks that were wearing the exact same stuff.
anonymous #9 to exact.
“they won’t go to black restaurants”
B.S.!!! Prowling the most obscure Afro-Haitian restaurants in the blackest neighborhoods of New Orleans is the über-chic lunchtime treat where I used to work. Some of the neighborhoods are so dreaded that our black co-workers wouldn’t accompany us (even though we were never the victims of crime). And this site’s correct, the sight of another white face would totally spoil the event.
Thanks for the wall of text #9.
I feel pretty bad for everyone that lives in a place so full of people that they have to struggle so absolutely rigorously to be different, white or not.
ps I LOVE THIS BLOG
Here’s one: making a blog about what white people like.
Anyone who thinks this blog is racist or unfair is an idiot. “Whiteness” is something that transcends the color of one’s skin. I’m sure everyone knows plenty of non-white people who act very “white,” as well as plenty of white people who act very “non-white.” It doesn’t make this website any less hilarious or awesome.
Right on Trp. This dude is definitely Jewish (there’s a Jewish star on his shirt in one of the pics), and Jewish people are definitely white.
I’m one of them.
That’s funny you would say that, but don’t jews tend to shy away from being white. I know a couple of jews who are whitish, but that is only skin deep.
Holla!
I disagree completely. I like some company, thank-you very much.
~Ag!~
an addition to my note above:
Not all of them are educated. Many of them are trust fund faux artists/actor/musicians that live on their parents dime. They work jobs that most people wouldn’t be able to pay rent with, yet they drive the streotypical Audi A4, BMW 3-Series, or Range Rover Sport.
My favorite thing to hear from friends like this is when they talk about buying their first place. Dude, you have a job that pays $20K a year. You’re not buying your first place. YOUR PARENTS ARE!
But yet these are the same kids that have to go therapy and talk about how tough their childhood was and how much they hate their parents. Gotta love it!
All thats not true about white people. There not going to be dissapointed with seeing another white person; nothings wrong with that.
praxenakis,
you’re wrong about white people being demanding in restaurants. Okay, maybe not wrong, but black people are way more demanding: Gotta have a straw, gotta have sweet n low, gotta have more AC, gotta have a clean cup. . . etc etc. On top of that, they don’t tip for shit. This is a well known stereotype among restaurant workers.
Noseeum
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how much guilt there is in simply being born a poor white child. Society has reinforced blaming that group for all the world’s ills. Somehow I don’t think it would be any better with China or an African country being the world’s superpower. Just look at what’s being done in those places. The vast majority wouldn’t even have the freedom or luxury of writing such a blog.
This blog implies that if you’re white, you should take a giant step backwards to 1956. I remember when white people threw their empty cans, bottles, lit cigarettes and any other trash out the car window without any qualms. Where having a bigger car was considered having a better car. When calling someone a Chinaman, Jap or worse was normal conversation. This blog suggests that we are somehow being phony by not returning to our Neanderthal roots.
I think that part of the disconnect with some people is caused by the guilt that has driven most white people into changing our behaviors somewhat for the better. In this way maybe we have left some members of minority groups back in 1956 mode. It’s impossible to generalize to that degree, because I do believe that people are people. We all have the same needs, and have far more similarities than differences due to ethnicity. I know there are many who now want to reassert the differences in an effort to find their own cultural identity. That can be ok if it’s done in a way that doesn’t put down other ethnic groups in the process. To do that is only to return to racism and to 1956 mentality. No, it was not more real, more honest, less phony or better back then.
I guess the blog is entertaining on some level with all the thousands of hits it’s gotten. I do think it’s tapping into the guilt many white people feel for simply being white. Many here think we should just tolerate racism as long as it is against white people. I find this attitude very condecending toward all minority groups. It says that we whites still control everything and you minorities are still victims that have to live with all of our idiosyncricies. That’s exactly what people believed in 1956. The promotion of this victim mentality is also exactly what allows any one group to exert control over any other. In that sense it has struck a nerve of some sort.
Noseeum has some excellent points. Speaking from my perspective as a 100% white person, at least ethnically, I must say that this blog scored initial points with me on a subconscious belly-laugh level. However, after this period of time during which my buttons were being pressed for me, I stopped to reflect on the nature of this blog’s humor.
The simple fact is, this blog is nothing more than expertly executed, expertly timed racist humor. Expertly executed because the author is a talented, observant comic writer. Expertly timed because it’s been a while since anyone, white or otherwise, has ripped into upper-middle-class white culture with this much depth and determination. It has been done before, but nothing in recent memory is this thorough and unapologetic.
I canR