I was woken up this morning by the sounds of movers hauling out my neighbor’s belongings. Lots of banging, scraping, and foot shuffling. I could tell the movers were black guys by their voices. Thanks to the miracle of walls that actually amplify outside sounds I was able to hear some of their conversation.
“White people’s furniture all look the same.”
A dog barked.
“And white people’s pets, too!”
I laughed because it’s true. Well, true of yuppie whites living in NW DC. I bet what they moved looked like this:
conspicuously displayed conde nast magazine sold separately.
answers to ‘Tinky Winky’.
Stereotypes… dey not pulled out kitteh’s ass.
Older DC people with families decorate with Persian rugs, wood floors, antiques, botanical and architectural prints, and anything that hints at early Americana. This was such a common style of decoration in Washington (at one time, anyway) that I used to think it must have been adapted out of some instructional handbook on how to look upper middle-class. Even the Christmas trees were all decorated in exactly the same way.
LikeLike
White people’s furniture looking the same is a stereotype? No, it’s not. Sounds like just some typical ignorant comment exchanged for cheap chuckles in the context of their immediate situation that you’re forcing into some sort of truism in the name of political incorrectness. You know, not every generalization on race is profound.
Honestly, not coming from whatever POV they’re coming from, such a statement doesn’t really make sense to me. I’m not white, and still if someone said something about white people’s furninture or dogs all looking alike I would have no idea what they were talking about or thinking of. The two pictures you posted certainly wouldn’t be the first things I’d image.
LikeLike
black people don’t have furniture
LikeLike
More mindless stereotyping meant to put and keep us in labeled boxes so we never have to think.
LikeLike
Hispanics build their own furniture.
LikeLike
More mindless stereotyping meant to put and keep us in labeled boxes so we never have to think.
It’s funny how often people who think they’re above stereotypes use the “label” and “box” metaphors. It’s almost as if they were just applying mindless stereotypes in order to avoid thinking for themselves.
LikeLike
Roissy – your ex neighbor’s name doesn’t happen to be David Catania, does it? 😉
LikeLike
6, anon 4 here: Feeling provocative? I know the type.
LikeLike
All Americans can’t do interior design.
LikeLike
I’m white and those two photos are perfect.
So true.
LikeLike
no, they’re not pulled from the ass, but believing them makes you project your ideas onto the next person who fits that profile.
“oh he’s prob just like the rest of them”
this shifts your perspective a lot, more than you’d probably care to admit. anything that person does to reaffirm your preconceived notion makes your brain go “i knew it”, making it really hard to see that person as an individual.
what’s interesting is that two individuals can have 2 different stereotypes about a “type” of person.
i’m saying this because i’ve been called a racist before, and i was really sure i was not being racist. it took another russian person to show me that i was not in fact racist, even though most americans stereotyped me to be so.
😦
LikeLike
asians draw dragons on their furniture
LikeLike
Italians’ furniture falls off a truck.
LikeLike
You are racist, just not as much as others.
LikeLike
why do i get the feeling that #4 anonymous is sara???
LikeLike
^ Maybe because you are slightly disorganized? 😀
LikeLike
my suspicions must be correct then. better when you went by your old monikers and I could keep you straight from the anonymous trolls.
LikeLike
i appreciate posts like these b/c it makes me pine for your posts on love and seduction that much more.
LikeLike
17, This is not sara, but I wonder why my comment offended you.
LikeLike
11, rinaface ““oh he’s prob just like the rest of them”
As much as we laugh at a comedian’s mildly racist schtick…yeah, I agree if we look deeper there’s a bit of the dark side there. Yet, who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh and how good for the soul? I find sometimes that if I get into that type of comedy too much that I do start to think that way more. Obviously roissy is just sharing a bit of light humor and some are looking deeper into how these comments effect how we relate to each other in the “real” world. Typical behavior for a white intellectual? I don’t think any of us likes to think of ourselves as ‘typical”, though we may be.
LikeLike
it didn’t offend me at all!
LikeLike
she just changes her aka on this blog so often that it is hard to keep her straight.
🙂
LikeLike