Stuff Black People Hate

Stuff Black People Hate is one of the funniest blogs we’ve ever read . . . period. Charged with political incorrectness and biting humor, you’re bound to stumble upon a topic that will either make you laugh out loud or shake your head in agreement. Exhibit A: Stupid names- “At a Kenneth Cole in Bethesda a few months back, I had the pleasure of meeting a very attractive young black woman working the sales floor. Very tall, very well-built, assertive yet soft-spoken and ambitious enough to be pursuing an advanced degree without being a dick about it. I was damn near ready to marry this girl on the spot. Then she told me her name. La La.” Still laughing? Then you’re just the kind of person who’ll appreciate what the writer behind Stuff Black People Hate has to say.

Chris: stuffblackpeoplehate.com

Q: When did you officially launch Stuff Black People Hate (SBPH)?
SBPH was launched on February 28, 2008.

Q: Racial satire sites have really taken off this past year. Did you ever think they’d gain the kind of attention they have now?
I’m not surprised at the attention they’ve received, but I am surprised it took so long. It’s interesting that it took a ‘white’ website (stuffwhitepeoplelike.org) to make racial satire blow up on the internet.

Non-white comedians have always had license to joke about white people and just about any other race, but white people have always had to walk a very fine line—and most white comedians who addressed race usually did so with trite remarks about their own race screwing over minorities in some way.

White people deprecating themselves in comedy isn’t new, but SWPL is unique and refreshing because the self-depreciation doesn’t involve the standard “this is what we did to black people” theme. Because they weren’t dealing with other races, they could take off the kid gloves and really get to the core of their purpose – which to me seems to be the mockery of hipsters, and not just white ones for that matter.

It’s not often that white people get to talk about race, even their own, without tiptoeing around political correctness, and this struck a chord with people. Now you have innumerable spin-offs, the popularity of which I am unfortunately mostly unaware.

Q: What do you think helps SBP stand apart from other sites?
I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure SBPH was the first ‘hate’ site to come out of the SWPL fame. I’m proud of SBPH for two reasons:

1. I didn’t adopt the ‘hate’ theme in some attempt to be a non-conformist. The hate theme was a natural extension of my own angry personality (which my friends and family can independently vouch for), and it never really even occurred to me to use the ‘like’ theme.

2. The blog started on accident. I’d been introduced to SWPL about a week before, but I had no interest in doing a similar site. The first post in the blog, ‘Subtle Racism’, actually started out as an angry email rant to my closest friends. I was about to send the email out when I suddenly decided that this was something that should be available to the public. That’s pretty much how it started.

Beyond that, SBPH’s anger and eccentricity make it unique. The topics are all over the map, and have caused even some black people to question the blog’s title. There is a lot of gratuitous swearing and zero attempt at political correctness. The blog is definitely not for the faint of heart or the easily insulted.

Q: Where do you find inspiration for your posts?
A better question would be “where don’t I find inspiration.” I can’t walk from my office to the bathroom without finding something to enrage me. I read the news a lot, I’m out and about very frequently, and I have a relatively wide circle of friends for someone my age, so there’s never any shortage of material.

I get a lot of suggestions from my readers, but I tend not to use them out of fear that I’ll lose my own voice in my blog. Staying true to my own purpose and not letting the masses steer the direction of my writing, while at the same time trying to stay engaged with my readers, has been the most unexpected and interesting challenge I’ve faced ever since the blog became popular.

Q: Who all is a part of the SBPH staff/family?
Just little ol’ me.

Q: Many of your posts are unabashed and could be viewed as politically incorrect. (We here at Clutch think you’re funny as hell). But there is a lot of truth in your comedic delivery. Do you ever receive negative emails about your postings?
I receive a lot of negative email and comments, but not as much as I would’ve thought. The blog isn’t obvious satire to people who come in blind without reading the ‘Why You Shouldn’t Read This Blog’ page, so most of the hate mail comes from them. They’re typically directed to that page either by me or another reader, and then they get it. But there are those, of course, that don’t get it—which is fine, because my site definitely isn’t for everybody.

There are also quite a few female readers who’ve emailed me accusing me of using my blog to attract women. I got so many of these emails that I recently posted one of them on the front page of the site and mocked the poor girl mercilessly – but I do admittedly see her point.

One of the ways I try to make the site unique is to be accessible to and connected with my readers. As a result, there is a lot of personal info about me on the site and there are quite a few pictures of me. A side effect has been that a lot of women find my enormous forehead and lanky frame attractive for some odd reason.

Finally, there are the white supremacists that show up from time to time demanding the black people on the site to recognize the validity of their views. The irony of these guys requiring a supposedly inferior race of people to validate their superiority never ceases to amaze me.

Q: A majority of your blog topics are politically charged. On in particular is the Fraudulent Four posting (2/29/08), which details the support (or lack thereof) from black community leaders for presidential hopeful Barack Obama. What are your thoughts on the current state of this 2008 Election? The state of Black America?
The 2008 Democratic contest has caused an awful lot of people to ‘show their ass.’ It was just surprising to see exactly who showed it. The Clintons have demonstrated their allegiance to the black community to be entirely self-serving. Al, Jesse, the rest of the ‘fraudulent four’, among other old guard civil rights leaders, have done the same. I could go on forever, so I’ll just stop there.

There is, however, a glimmer of hope at the end of all this, given the number of young voters and older progressives of every race and creed that are willing to vote for a black man. It says that even if Obama doesn’t make it to the White House in 2008, a black or other minority president can happen within my lifetime. I think that’s something to smile about.

As for the state of black America . . . there’s a saying that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and I feel that this is an appropriate analog to the black community. Fifteen years ago pretty much everyone laughed at the prospect of a black president. Fifteen years ago kids yelled and swore and acted a fool in the company of one another, but NEVER in the presence of adults. Not even the bad kids from the worst parts of the city did it.

Today, we’re within striking distance of a black president. But when I go home on the metro everyday there are black children actually taking pride in screaming, swearing, and making outlandish sexual references in front of and even TOWARD adults—and I can’t help but think that these kids will make nothing of themselves.

As some of us achieve more, an equal or greater number of us fall further into the abyss. Society at large likes to focus on and glorify that segment that’s sinking, and it poses innumerable challenges to stop the bleeding, so to speak. It’s a heartbreaking situation, and finding a solution will be incredibly difficult.

Q: Why should bloggers bookmark SBPH on their computer or add it to their daily reading list?
If anything, they shouldn’t bookmark my blog or read it everyday. I’m told over and over again that the blog is very addicting (the comments sections in particular, for which I can thank my readers) and very productivity-inhibiting. So if you’re going to read the blog, especially at work, do so at your own risk.

Q: Wow. We’ll keep that in mind! Among your archives, what do you consider your proudest posting?
That’s a tough one. The first post that comes to mind is Sex & the City, so I suppose I’ll go with that.

Q: When you’re not writing for SBPH, what are some other sites that you visit?
I read Maddox’s Best Page in the Universe, Tucker Max, Tard-Blog, Stuff Educated Black People Like, and WhyIHateDC, but not very often. Most of my time on the internet is spent resisting the urge to punch images of Hillary Clinton on CNN.com.

Q: We hear that several blog sites are being courted by major book publishers and TV companies for the rights to their work. Will we be seeing SBPH on the silver screen or on shelves at our favorite bookstores any time soon?
I’ve been approached by a few literary agents, but no publishers or networks. I suspect my blog is too caustic and too unpopular (compared to SWPL) to make business sense, which is fine with me. I may write a book (or a book-like entity), which I would probably wind up publishing and marketing myself through my own site. There are a lot of things I’d like to get off my chest that don’t fit within the scope of SBPH, but finding the free time to do so will be challenging to say the least.

Q: What are your hopes for SBPH?
Who knows. Right now, this thing is just floating on a breeze. Sooner or later we’ll see where it lands.