Things White People Like To Buy (For People Of Color)

Are you kidding me?  The NY Times has a special gift guide for "people of color"?  Geez, I always thought "Stuff White People Like" was a spoof, but the scales have fallen.

NYTPicker says it is "racist".

Glynnis MacNicol of Mediaite is not "willing to go that far. But badly, terribly thought out, bordering on offensive, absolutely."

Interestingly, Janet Shan of The Hinterland Gazette (Thoughts from an African-American centrist) presents the same conclusion as Mediaite in almost the same language (but who is chicken and who is egg?):

...there are some who take umbrage to the newspaper's holiday gift guide and are actually saying it's racist. I wouldn't actually go that far, but it could be considered pushing the limits on being offensive.

A bit later, Mediaite has this (my emphasis throughout):

Mostly, I am utterly amazed it made it past the editing process and am baffled why anyone felt the need to separate these gifts from the more generalized categories into which all these items fit, to one based on skin color.

And The Hinterland:

I must admit that I am a little amazed that words used to describe the gift guide, plus the fact that they managed to work President Barack Obama and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the picture, made it pass the editing department. Had this been in an African American magazine, then it would be entirely different, but to see that the New York Times felt it had to to separate these gifts from the more generalized categories into which all these items fit, to one based on skin color, is a little puzzling, to say the least.

Someone is writing compelling prose.  Probably happens all the time, but this time I happened to notice.

Comments

[anduril]

Did I wander onto the Nazi thread again?

[centralcal]

Oh brother - who is the original and who is the copy(ier)?

[Captain Hate]

Why wouldn't it make it through the editing process? The editors probably originated the idea.

[clarice]

The paper has editors?

[anduril]

the chicken is the original, the egg is the copy. i know this.

[M L King]

"I have a dream that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the types of Christmas presents they receive."

[Rick Ballard]

I wonder if that "Whole Chicken" deep fryer has a good warranty. The price for "Two Months of Jheri Curl Treatments" looks a little steep. It must include doilies.

[Thomas Collins]

It's not racist if Pinch Sulzberger's folks do it. It's multiculturally sensitive.

[Rocco]

Isn't that racial profiling?

[Thomas Collins]

Has this been vetted as not being a hoax with a fake NY Times cyber-masthead? It's unbelievable.

[centralcal]

The Obama's have mailed out there Christmas holiday card per HuffPo's Style section:

The Obamas have signed, sealed and delivered this year's holiday cards. According to the Chicago Tribune, the front of the card reads "Season's Greetings," and is cream-colored with a thin maroon border and a gold wreath encircling a gold presidential coat of arms.

Coat of Arms? The President of the United States has a Coat of Arms?

I did not know this.

[centralcal]

oops - there=their

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Coat of Arms? The President of the United States has a Coat of Arms?

The bad thing about ridiculing the idiots at Huffington Post is that the job never ends.

[JM Hanes]

"By and for people of color?" As startling as the separate-but-equal gift guide itself might be, I don't think "people of color" is as universally polite as the rubes at the NYTimes apparently believe it is. Throw in the token gifts for Indian Indians, Hispanics & Asians, and you've got a regular melting pot of bad judgment.

[matt]

so the MC Hammer CD's are out this year?

[jeff]

''Asian Faces: The Essential Beauty and Makeup Guide for Asian Women' by Taylor Chang-Babaian;
Foreword by Yoko Ono '

GAG

[Jane]

I swear Chris Mathews is going to Obama impeached. He's going off on Cheney saying that bringing the terrorists to this country is giving aid and comfort to the enemy and saying that constitutionally that is treason.

I wanna say _ Yeah and...

[MarkO]

OK. Is this the same thing as "colored people?" Isn't that good editing? Is white a color?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Matt-

MC's a bit busy trying to prop up his buy in on Cash4Gold (True! LUN).

[smith]

Meh. I'm a person of color and am not offended. Political correctness FTL.

[roux]

What if the suggested fried chicken and ribs? Would that be racist?

[JM Hanes]

smith:

"Political correctness FTL."

Plus the political hypocrisy, of course. If a southern newspaper put out such a guide, the Times would be front paging deep concerns and collecting experts to opine on renascent racism in the red states.

[Rick Ballard]

"Would that be racist?"

I'm sure that to some the answer would be "You're goddam Amerikkka Wright it's racist, honky." while to others "Ribs? Spare or baby back?" would be the responce generated.

It's the NYT though - you know what they meant. I'm surprised they didn't have a flaming cross pictured at the top of the article.

[Mustang0302]

Meh. Cabela's, Summit Racing, and Shotgun News each publish holiday gift guides for me.

Racist of them, I know. My color(s) change as necessary, according to the season/time of day, and the local foliage. They don't seem to notice or care. Racist.

None of them found at StuffWhitePeopleLike, either.

Racist, obviously.

[Neo]

What about my "Purple" friends ?

[cathyf]

Damn you, Neo, now I'm humming "I love you; you love me, we're a happy family..."

[Frau Rippen]

Rick, one market here also sells St. Louis ribs. I have no idea how they differ from spare or baby back.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

My Little Green Man who lives in the toe of a 40+ year old pair of GoGo boots isn't too happy and is threatening to pick up stakes and move to an equally old pair of penny loafers.

[Melinda Romanoff]

smurf!

Is there a season for those?

[Strawman Cometh]

Black people luv them. LUN

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Gnädige Frau, St Louis ribs have the brisket end and skirt trimmed off them.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Frau-

With St. Louis style, it's the prep that makes all the difference. Try some, with a pile of napkins, and don't be shy with the sauce.

You shouldn't be disappointed. It's a step on that road for perfect BBQ that you may find yourself. You won't be alone. If you go the St. Louis route, you may need some of the LUN.

[matt]

doesn't Pinchy realize he has just insulted everyone, including Blacks, Asians, Latinos, Anglos, and American Indians? Wow! That's a home run...

The NYT continues to amaze in its provincialism and incredible stupidity. And these people think they're the smart ones?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oh, Chaco!

You need that LUN too! The vinegar sauce is too hard to recreate from the Carolinas (interesting, just not a favorite), but Maull's is a bit easier.

And they ship (I just got my last 6-pack).

[Topsecretk9]

I know one thing I won't be getting my American neighbor who happens to be African-American...The NYT's. Which indicates to me I will NOT be in the minority!

[Stephanie]

Hola! Does it occur to anyone else, but the NYT displays the same clunking cluelessness about those things it tries to expound on with the same vigor and certitude as the current occupiers at 1600 Penn Ave? With about the same level of navel gazing...

Evidently Navel Gazers of the World united under the prog flag. Who knew? Now if they would just stop trying to pass that lint off as spun gold.

[Topsecretk9]

Stephanie

Hola. Yes, it does occur. I can only assume that's why they don't sell any papers or advertising anymore.

[richard mcenroe]

Gifts (For People of Color)?

Is that like Nice Stuff (for Negros)?

[Neo]

Obama: Stop trying to frighten Americans about my policies
GOP: Go take .. [unintelligible]
Obama: The GOP said something about joining the “Mile High Club” .. I think.

[Lesley]

When my daughter was first introduced to the concept of race (which occured in kindergarten) she was adament that black people should be considered the "tanned race" and white people should be considered the "pink race." Wouldn't it be lovely to write on some dang government form -

Race: Pink
or
Race: Tan

[bgates]

It's late, and this just occurred to me, so I'm going to write about Tiger.

The big adultery story of the 90s was Bubba. I remember everybody who could get to a tv camera telling me that adultery was no big deal, and politicians in Europe cheat all the time and nobody cares, so why can't we be all civilized like Europe and agree that nobody cares about adultery?

You know where Tiger's wife is from?

You know how Tiger met his wife? They were introduced by Jesper Parnevik. Parnevik is a professional golfer, which means he could cost himself hundreds of thousands of dollars by making the best golfer in the world want to beat him in every tournament he plays. Parnevik has said that he wishes he never introduced Tiger to his wife.

You know where Jesper Parnevik is from?

Apparently sometime in the past 12 years, some Europeans started to regress to barbaric American thinking about fidelity in marriage.

I blame global warming.

[Jim Ryan]

Hi, just googling "what to buy blacks for Christmas", passing through. Have no idea what to get blacks for Christmas. Flummoxed, really. What do they like? Magazine subscriptions? Corn? Automobiles? Saw this and got the link to NYT "NYT Pick." Thanks!

[sbw]

No Danish cartoon this -- From Berke Breathed's "Bloom County" perhaps in 1988:

Mom: That's the most adorable little colored girl playing outside.
Steve: "Colored"? You're saying "colored people" in 1988? You know better, Ma.
Mom: Then why the "National Association for Colored People? I don't think Negroes mind at all.
Steve: Don't say "Negroes," Ma! You can't say "Negroes"!
Mom: Can I say "United Negro College Fund"?
Steve: You are baiting me, Ma!
Dad: That's it. We're leaving.
Mom: Stay put, Reginald. "Mister Socially Sensitive"isn't finished shaming his parents into enlightenment.
Steve: Everybody just calm down. Let's agree to use the the New-Age term "People of Color."
Mom: People of Color.
Steve: People of Color.
Mom: Colored people.
Steve: NO!!
Dad: We're leaving.

[Jane]

BGates - Rush speculated yesterday that someone must have determined that Tiger is a conservative - thus all the hullabaloo.

[Jane]

Does anyone know how to post a wmv file? I got the best thing in email today and I want to pass it on.

[cathyf]

Hey, Jane, I showed that to my kids, and, WonderBoy immediately ran your wmv file through snopes and burst my bubble. It turns out it was not an Australian school, but a charter school in CA. And it was never a real message, just a script that was created by some exasperated teachers at the school.

[andycanuck]

I didn't read the list. Did it include the African-American version of Dwight Schrute's Princess Unicorn dolls? Her horn can pierce the sky!