Baked chicken, booze and ATL

Humor blogs probe racial stereotypes on the Web

TREND. Have you heard that Indian guys love posing for pictures with bottles of alcohol? That Asians perpetually cut in line or that Latinos enjoy flashing their flag at every opportunity possible? You would if you read any of the growing number of blogs created to laugh at the idiosyncrasies of a particular race. These sites — lovingly written by members of the race being lampooned — are spin-offs of the highly popular blog Stuff White People Like, which makes a numerical list dissecting all things liberal, white, middle-class Americans find cool — including No. 27: Marathons, No. 50: Irony and No. 64: Recycling. After only three months, SWPL has garnered 14 million hits, a high-priced book deal for its creator, Christian Lander, and many copycats.

Such as Stuff Asian People Like [http://www.asian-central.com/stuffasianpeo plelike/], the first in said genre (yes, Peter Nguyen, the blog’s 18-year-old creator, checked the origination dates of all the other similar blogs). “We’ve crashed two Go Daddy [.com] servers already,” says Nguyen. SAL started with 600 hits and in March had over 33,000 unique visitors.

“At first, I kind of freaked out. I didn’t think it would be this popular,” says Charlee Renaud, a 26-year-old lawyer in Louisiana, about her blog Stuff Educated Black People Like [http://stuffebplike.com/].

“It’s a way to make fun of myself and my friends, ’cause we all do these things,” says Renaud, who came up with post No. 3: Baked Chicken, because her boyfriend ate it at least three times a week, and No. 16: Moving to Atlanta, since everyone in her law school swore they would. “A lot of friends would say, ‘Ah, well, I can’t get a job here in Louisiana; I’m just going to pack up and move to Atlanta, ’cause everybody black is there.’ Which so isn’t true,” Renaud laughs.

Both Nguyen and Renaud say 95 percent of the feedback they get is positive. “A lot of people say, ‘Hey, I do this stuff as well,’” says Renaud. Only a few commentors call them racists.

“I wish there was something I could say to people who don’t get the joke.  But I spent four years in grad school, so I’m familiar with people who are humorless,” says Lander, who is flattered by the imitations.

Like Lander’s book deal, Nguyen and Renaud are trying to capitalize on the momentum. Nguyen views his site as a way to unify Asians and get them to discuss less-talked about issues. He has started Asia Central, featuring blogs, videos and news. Renaud is launching a Stuff Educated Black People Like T-shirt line.

Be it observations on the bus, behavior habits of friends or comments from readers, both keep a running list of material and have no plans of slowing down. “We have enough topics for the next five years,” Nguyen says.