StuffWhitePeopleLike.Com Explains The Intermarriage Rate

Your post is really smart because it gets at something we tend to
downplay--our definition of culture is often too narrow. We often think
of culture in terms of gender or ethnicity; however, more and more
often, we define ourselves by what we like, and what people we like
like. In my most recent post on The Weekly Rader (http://weeklyrader.blogspot.com), I talk
about how pervasive these icons of culture have become in identity
formation. Maybe, as you suggest, SWPL will become the hot new dating
site . . .

I'm not sure I understand the whole StuffWhitePeopleLike phenomenon. If it's supposed to be mocking the stereotypical white experience, my question is: what's wrong with it? Why mock it in the first place?

Personally, I'm quite content with the culture I've been raised in. I rather enjoy the courses I take on the way to getting my B.A. in Jewish Studies and Philosophy. Sure, I'm never going to cure cancer with a Liberal Arts degree, but is that the only thing education should be about? I guess being a white person, it's no surprise I think that the kind of mental exploration liberal arts allows is valuable in its own right.

What about music? I recall reading something about white people liking Jazz music. Well what are we supposed to like? Hip-hop? Rock? The only authentically "white" music is continental classical. Everything else borrows from other cultures. Am I to be mocked for liking someone else's art?

I really don't understand why this website is making people feel so self-conscious about the things they like. Certainly, there's the "wine-snob effect" where people pretend to know important things about otherwise mundane things, but some people just genuinely and unpretentiously like wine. And seriously, shorts (#86)? What else do you propose I wear when it's 90 fucking degrees out?

First I would like to say to Izzy good article and this is a debate we should be having...

Would I be correct in saying that intermarriage is the greatest taboo in Judaism (especially in America) today? I feel like I have heard more than once, "Don't marry a non-Jew, or you will kill a piece of the tribe. Hitler wanted to kill us, and you don't want to be like Hitler do you?"

And what is the definition of "fairly observant?" What percentage of Jews do strictly observe Halakha?

At what point does one say... I don't want my people to disintegrate, but I also don't want to be closed off to amazing people who share my values, but were not born Jewish? I don't know the answer.

And then what should our attitude toward the "half-ass" Jew (who is Jewish because his mom's mom was) standing outside the Whole Foods be? Get more involved in Judaism? Screw off, we don't want you? Or you're not really Jewish anyway... unless you're Beck, then we'll claim you.

"Would I be correct in saying that intermarriage is the greatest taboo in Judaism (especially in America) today."

Probably not.  With intermarriage rates being somewhere near 50%, I don't think it qualifies as a taboo anymore.  It's just a really big problem.

stuffwhitepeoplelike is a fun site, but they should really be called stuff white LIBERALS like. just sayin

...it's mocking how many white people view themselves as individuals while they view non-white people as an easily stereotyped conglomerate. The message is that from the outside, it's easy to stereotype. If you've ever seen a white friend meet a black person and immediately start talking about what kind of music they assume that person likes, the site is really pretty funny.

That's an interesting take, Cavanaugh.  It's just too bad that the website is making people feel self-conscious about things they often genuinely like, instead of just making them feel self-conscious about their ethnic stereotyping.

     Outmarriage from Judaism? Why not, you're also an American, it's American to be accepting of others, and how else you gonna make more Jews when Judaism isn't a proselytizing religion? Can't do it the old-fashioned way, just ask your tired old Ma. But outmarriage from your economic and cultural class? Not even to another Jew, trust me, it don't woik so good.  

Well-off, well-educated whites like to believe that they have become perfectly multicultural: respecting and celebrating all cultures, and having eliminated (or being in the process of eliminating) such a thing as a "dominant white culture." SWPL is a lot of fun because of the way it's written. It's also vaguely unsettling because it shows the rich, liberal young urbanites that they indeed have their "own" culture, which, horror of horrors, is distinct from and not entirely "inclusive" of, say black culture or Hispanic culture. The more things change, the more they... you get the idea. 

Where do we as Jews fit in? There is, of course, no one-size-fits-all answer. Most Jews are fully integrated into the overall white culture, as Izzy implies. Statistics have shown that marriages between people of the same or similar cultures have a better chance of success than those of disparate cultures. So if you see yourself mirrored, culturally, in SWPL, and have no distinctly Jewish cultural traits or values that go beyond that, you might as well head for Whole Foods looking for compatible people. You'll find them there, and they may or may not be Jewish (statistically, the latter is more probable).

OTOH, if you have distinctly Jewish beliefs, customs, or other cultural traits, and if preserving them and handing them down to posterity is imporant to you, then you should actively seek to marry a Jew and have Jewish children. It's as simple as that.