Race-related blog drawing white-hot reactions Race-related blog causing controversy

Caucasian site is flooded with hits

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Asian women, fancy coffee, farmers markets, dinner parties and gay friends — these are just a sampling of life's pleasures — if you're white.

Excuse me?

That's according to John Lander, the (white) wit behind the Web sensation Stuff White People Like blog, an irreverent daily missive on the passions of posh urbanites of the Caucasian persuasion.

It's the latest in a string of similar blogs (first came theassimilatednegro.com, then angryasian.com) that act as a virtual shrink's sofa for those tackling the tricky topics of race and class.

Lander is not the only one who uses the Web site as cheap and easy therapy, though the 29-year-old admits that's exactly what it is for him.

Readers, hundreds every day, flood the site's comment section with alternating fury and delight.

To date, there have been 14 million hits, reflecting the nation's current obsession with race and gender, too. For confirmation, check out the comments and speeches by presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton just this past week.

Dean Rader, a pop culture critic who authors weeklyrader.blogspot.com, says readers flock to Stuff White People Like because it's hip and hot and the place to be seen and heard online. "It's just as much about class and coolness and yuppiness and consumption (as race)."

And yes, if the some of the posts push far beyond the boundaries of good taste, readers seem to find liberation in an environment unfettered by political correctness.

Take #11 on the list: "Asian Girls: 95% of white males have at one point in their lives experienced yellow fever. ... White men love Asian women so much that they will go to extremes such as stating that Sandra Oh is sexy, teaching English in Asia, playing in a co-ed volleyball league ... "

Ouch.

That post has received more than 1,550 responses.

Other posts — try No. 36, "Breakfast Places" and No. 63, "Expensive Sandwiches" — may seem a bit more benign, but the post and ensuing conversations carry just as much bite.

"To a white person, there is no better way to spend a Saturday morning than to get up late, around 9:30 and pile into your Audi or Volvo and drive to one of these little places and eat breakfast with friends," Lander writes. "Oftentimes these breakfasts last for an hour or more (hence the long lines and wait times). Some white people take it to the next level and bring their dogs, newspapers or even a laptop."

Lander says the blog's title has drawn more controversy than any of the posts. White people hate being lumped into a group that they don't feel a part of, he says, adding, "that's essentially the same thing that every minority has been dealing with for centuries."

The latest spinoff of Lander's blog — Stuff Asian People Like.

corilyn.shropshire@chron.com