So you are a white, young(ish), well educated person–possibly with a liberal arts degree– and a few friends Of Color. You come across the blog “stuff white people like” and you get pissed off. You say “But, recycling is good! Buying organic is good! Helping the Poor is good! These guys are a******s for making fun of what I do.” One defensive argument you may have resorted to, to shut out the goaded feeling you were left with, is Obama’s speech on Unity. “Obama said we should all just get along, and this site is divisive! End of story.” Right, a closed mind. That’s what liberalism is aaaaaaalll about. Way to get your (parent’s) money’s worth from your education.
The entries on the “white people” site–in addition to being sometimes brilliantly funny– seem to me exactly what we need to read just now. They are less about division than calling out America’s current batch of progressives on their collective devolvement into eerie competitiveness and pseudo-compassion. If we can’t face those facets of our “culture”–and oh yes, it’s funny because it’s true–we can’t begin to examine and repudiate them. Any insightful social humor offers the targeted audience a chance at self examination, and thereby, change. The “white” site gives us that. Finally.
Obama’s speech carefully grounded the “audacity of hope” within the context of the ongoing “improbable experiment” that is our wonderful democracy. In it, he twice pointed out that we are in the process of “perfecting our union”, that it continues to be “perfected over time”. The speech calls on the “white community” of America to recognize that “the path to a more perfect union” means addressing issues “Not just with words, but with deeds”. So of course, you are a good liberal, you DO that already, right? You recycle, ride a bike, March on Washington occasionally. You have friends of color!
As Clander’s site cheerfully acknowledges, all too often we are doing these things to score “points” within our social network, not out of any overall investment in considered compassion or effective activism. Sure, we want social change, we want global change, we want the more perfect union. And most of us recognize the absurdity of, say, pushing a pink bed through Washington, DC intersections in order to achieve this (“look! A pink bed, impeding traffic. I must end the war now!”). But how is recycling absurd? Aside from the sad fact that many municipalities aren’t funded to support a genuine recycling program and that what gets picked up as recycling often ends up in the landfill anyway, it’s less that it’s absurd than that the unrealistic self-satisfaction that comes from that ritual act may be blocking our consideration of ways in which we could be genuinely powerful.
One entry on Clander’s site points out the knee-jerk liberal hatred of “corporations”, and even Obama’s speech righteously sings of the dismal behavior endemic to “corporate culture”: I suggest that a blanket dismissal of “corporations” as the enemy prohibits a recognition that it is through the progressive community’s influence over these very corporations that we access one of our greatest abilities to effect change.
For example; on the (according to Clander, revered, although one has to assume only by those with televisions) Colbert Report, a recent guest was Dean Kamen, briefly demonstrating a water distiller that is capable of producing potable water from just about any water based liquid source through distillation. Kamen designed this to be portable and to be capable of running on an equally portable generator that can function on many fuel sources, including cow dung.
He has also partnered with a businessman who has previously used a successful distribution model to get cell phones in wide circulation among small rural villages; he has suggested it is his hope that the machines could be brought to water- needy localities (like Atlanta?) using a similar model, based on the employment of local individual entrepreneurs and thereby maintaining and strengthening the integrity of the local economy. Most of those details, though, didn’t make it to the Colbert report. Also what didn’t make it is the need for a corporation to take on the mass production, or at least funding mass production, of the machines. It appears an economic risk and is not a popular corporate cause. And THAT’S where you “white” people come in.
One thing Clanders site does hit on is that as a group, the well–educated and well–meaning Americans tend to have a whole bunch of influential “buying power”, that has NOT gone unnoticed in coroporate land. In the last 10 years, how much easier has it become to find items labeled certified organic? You can get them at 7-11! How often do you see “organic” ingredients and “recycled” materials touted as a selling point on products, often to ridiculous extremes? Isn’t one of McDonalds new adds (with all the fruit) targeted just to you? Yes, it’s a joke that McDonalds is somehow eco-friendly–the point is, they WANT YOUR MONEY, alot. Yeah, you, with the discretionary income and the reflexive socio-eco guilt. And this is your secret super power!
Now, say you thought getting Kamen’s water machines to small villages in Bangladesh was a great idea; You could, of course, try to make one yourself, fly into Delhi, rent a yak, and hand deliver it, to the presumed grateful cheers of the people (up up and awaaaaaaaay). Nice fantasy, great photo op to put on your desk and home walls (“oh that? when I saved a small village in Bangladesh, no big deal…”). OR, on a possibly more realistic note, figure out a way to convince the big corpos that your money, and those of a large bloc of buyers just like you, is going to whatever one of them is providing the funding for large scale production of the water machines.
Maybe a you tube campaign (who writes letters anymore?), like one of the campaign or public service announcements:
Husband (in brand name fleece wear, standing near his clearly visible $10,000 bike): Honey, it used to be just the Prius was the environmentally friendly choice, but now there are other car companies making efficient little hybrids; How do we Chose?
Wife: Oh, whatever car company is funding production of the Kamen water distiller! That means our money helps support global well being in a tangibly effective way! I’d even pay MORE to get a car from that company, knowing the worldwide benefits of doing so!
OR, to get the major bucks from the totally evil PharmCo’s:
Husband: Honey, which brand of erectile enhancing sexual performance drug should I buy, and recommend to all my friends, thus increasing it’s market share?
Wife: Isn’t one of those companies funding production of the Kamen water distiller? Let’s buy a whole case of erectile drugs from them! Whatever we don’t use, we can donate to the poor!
Corporate profiling can be used at a more local level, for example only supporting by buying choice those with a record of non-discriminatory hiring and racially diverse leadership (and damn good family leave/job share policies, while we are at it) . This sort of thing has been effective before, and continues to be a viable route to activism. We CAN shake off the current progressive complacency that “stuff white people like” targets, and start put our energy less into ritual, social status gaining acts, and more into effective action. Buying power campaigns are easy, and FUN! Plus, everyone wins. Brainstorm one at your next dinner party!