Rethinking Markets

Not on markets, and a little outside my own expertise as an economic sociologist, and yet:

This blog has gotten a lot of attention lately, cataloging the things that White People Like. It is funny and pointed, in a really interesting way, and some of the reactions – ie the 1300 comments on Unfogged, are worth checking out.

I think Ogged catches my own sense of the thing, arguing that what makes it funny is not quite the self-mocking mirror that one can hold up to one’s own experience (or rather, my own experience), but the perfection of the trope against its unspoken counterpart – non-White people. Or as Ogged puts it, the screwed. So things like recycling, dogs, and Netflix are just so insignificant against the backdrop of dramatic, categorical, privilege. And I am not pushing an essentialist line here, I think that ‘White people’ stands in for privilege rather than a particular skin color. Not all White people are ‘White people’ in this fashion.

Anyhow, check it out for the funny, or check it out for the deep social commentary dressed up as fluff.