#124 Hating People Who Wear Ed Hardy
April 13, 2009 by clander
Often it can be easier to find common ground with a white person by talking to them about something you both hate. Discussing things you both like might lead to an argument over who likes it more or who liked it first. Clearly, the safest route is mutual hatred. When choosing to talk about something that white people hate, it’s best to choose something that will allow white people to make clever comments or at the very least feel better about themselves. Currently, the easiest way to do that is to ask a white person for their thoughts on people who wear Ed Hardy.
Ed Hardy is a clothing company that makes a wide range of expensive t-shirts, hoodies, and jeans. These clothes are notable for their use of elements from classic tattoo design such as skulls, hearts, and dragons. On the surface, the use of the words “classic” “tattoo” and “t-shirt” would seem like a logical fit for white people, but it is not. White people hate these clothes unilaterally and it is advised that you merely accept that at face value. If you were to ask a white person to explain why a regular size dragon logo is ok but one that goes around the neck is not, you would be trapped in a long and fruitless conversation.
To put this in proper perspective, Ed Hardy is so hated by white people that it cannot be worn ironically. This is no small feat. As it stands, the only other entries in this category are Nazi Uniforms, Ku Klux Klan Robes, and self-tanner.
Since you cannot in good conscience have an Ed Hardy themed party, the best way to make use of this white hatred is to give your stories a little more appeal to white people.
For example, if you take the reasonable but not compelling story: “I got cut off in traffic this morning and when I honked the guy gave me the finger,” and replace it with: “I got cut off in traffic this morning by this guy in an Ed Hardy shirt. I honked and then he gave me the finger!” The story will become sixty percent more interesting to white people because it allows them to make a witty response like: “I guess that douche bag had to get to a UFC party or a nightclub event he was promoting.”
Follow this up with a laugh, a high five, and a compliment about the acceptable shirt the white person is wearing and you will find yourself with a new friend.
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That was the whitest comment I have ever read.
The guys in the picture aren’t the “white people” of the “Stuff White People Like” variety because they are either: (1) hispanic, (2) poor, or (3) well-off enough but not sufficiently “cultured” to understand that Ed Hardy is for poor / rural white people. You see, “White People,” as used in this blog, denotes educate, wealthy Caucasians, particularly those living in urban settings.
I feel like you are white, on the other hand, because you use phrases like “satyrical appropriation,” although your spelling makes me question this.
I am also white, because I use verbs like “denote.”
I’m fascinated by this website and will probably include it in a research paper for my history class. This post specifically begs some questions like “Who is wearing Ed Hardy and going to watch UFC? Are those guys in the photo not white enough to be white, i.e. how white is white? If I like to talk about how I hate Ed Hardy paraphernalia does that make me white?” And more generally, I’m curious about how the writer is able to transcend his own whiteness in order to comment upon the aspects of its consumer identity. Without acknowledging his own privilege and what should be the satyrical appropriation of “white culture,” a seeming oxymoron, I would argue that this sort of amusement is very problematic. What does this superficial white culture become but an opposition to the apparent soundness of other, more readily racialized cultures. Hopefully we can see how such a perspective exposes the illogic of race: nobody will like everything on this list; and yet people of all phenotypes will like many of them. In that case, whiteness does not depend on the colour of your skin.
This is a great post ! it was very informative. I look forward in reading more of your work. Also, I made sure to bookmark your website so I can come back later. I enjoyed every moment of reading it.
On One hand i agree. And on another. Well..,
This wouldn’t be amusing if it was about pussyfooting around what your really thinking about in your head when no one else is there to hear your thoughts or judge your natural hatred for ed hardys egomaniacal signature posted largely over a otherwise cool looking skull!
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