Since my little web-ring of friends have been making saucy comments about a couple of sites, I thought I’d weigh in on a few. Lately there’s been a proliferation of sites that sort of spoof or criticize groups of people such as African American men (http://thecwexperience.wordpress.com/), Indians (http://www.badindiangirl.com/), and white people (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/). People’s views on these sites range from “totally hilarious!”, “spot on,” or them being outright racist.

First of all, I do think there is a place for generalizations and trends. I think hunches, social trends, and most of all academically researched cultural patterns can offer some significant insight. In my current master’s project, I highlight the dominant cultural health patterns of several ethnic groups as researched by Dr. Madeline Leininger. However, this portion represents only the first part of the project. The second part closely examines individual health stories, or narratives, of people who represent the ethnic groups I studied (read: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down). The personal health stories I present are far more compelling than group phenomenons as they illuminate individual, complex, and deeply unique experiences. Sometimes these personal narratives coincide with group “dominant health patterns” and other times they do not. Thus, I argue that getting at the heart of a patient’s desire and motivation must be primarily rooted in evoking his or her personal health values, attitudes and health beliefs. Only when we get at what really matters to individuals (not groups), can we make some meaningful headway in addressing the intersection of culture and personal health.

The problem with the sites I mentioned is that they are not based on academic research and lack intellectual integrity. Or, even if they don’t claim academic merit, they are said to be innocuous social satire, revealing of real social trends, and sometimes “shouldn’t be taken seriously.” I’m not concerned with politically correctness here, but I am concerned with a growing trend of what I like to call a “culture of smugness” in viewing groups of people or even individuals whom we don’t agree with. Why is smugness (even if we might be right) a problem? Because it doesn’t get us anywhere–especially in personal relationships. We can sit around and get “stuck” on what individuals are doing or not doing because of their culture or and, in our minds, their less advanced ways of thinking. We can say we are writing things to get a laugh or in the spirit of satire, but this sort of smugness bears sinister fruit all too often.

These sites all sort of evoke kind of a reactionary, unhealthy response in me. For example, when I saw the stuffwhitepeoplelike site I immediately thought: “Hey I want to do a website on stuff-idiotic-hipsters-like-the-authors-of-stufwhitepeoplelike-like.com.” Then, I was able to gleefully rattle off several things these sorts of people tend to like. They were as follows:

1. Rectangular shaped glasses

2. Sushi–but they do not eat it/view it in the same way white people do

3. Mr. Roger’s sweaters

4. When enjoying many of the same activities as white people hipsters realize they do it in a much more special, significant way.*

*this way I can not quite identify or articulate because I must be too white.

So the ideas kept flowing and I started to feel quite smug…but then I realized I was just like every one else, parading my smug assumptions and general hunches all over the internet. Besides being a huge waste of my time, I also realized that attempting to attack people like the stuffwhitepeoplelike authors (though I don’t agree with them) just didn’t make me feel very good about myself.

On one of the sites I lurk, someone mentioned a song from a musical, “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” or something to that effect. This can be very true of my thinking sometimes. I do catch myself concocting general assumptions about people because of experiences I’ve had or trends I’ve noticed. I think this is true for most of us, and there’s really nothing wrong with these thoughts. However, I don’t go blabbering this negative internal dialogue all over the internet or in public. Why not? While I recognize I have these thoughts, that I too have an occasional inclination to make poisonous generalizations, I’d rather not make the specifics a central focus for myself or anyone else in public forums. In the end, attributing negative trends (no matter how real they are perceived or even sometimes studied) to groups doesn’t get us very far in understanding the intricacies, motivations, and real hearts of individuals. Frankly, this approach doesn’t advance anyone’s thinking in any way. Personally, I just feel bad if I dwell on my hang-ups and negative attitudes. They won’t ever fully go away, but I can commit to working alongside them in an upwardly, positive, and production fashion. To coin a phrase, most days, I guess I’d rather try and be the change I wish to see in the world.