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Not sure I get it. So what is the answer if you’re not white?
Like “Dad responses”, whiteness is a state of mind 🧘♂️
Ok but I still don’t understand the joke :(
Like “Dad responses”, these are just common cliche ways for white American men to respond to questions - in this case, “How are you doing?”
In this case, the responses listed, while seemingly anodyne, are generally given out as a means of downplaying one’s own troubles - “It’s going” being “It’s going badly enough that I don’t want to talk about it in any more detail” - and “Hanging in there” being “I’m managing, but only barely.”
So both, while not being a cause for alarm by a surface reading, are actually (commonly) given out when significantly distressed.
Out of curiosity can you do the other colors too?
Unfortunately, I’m not the original creator of the post; you’d have to ask them for more droll observations of common American responses (and their deeper meanings) by race.
“still breathing”
Personal favorite
“Oh you know. How are you?”
I like dropping, “It’s not, but how are you?” an easy and more polite way of saying “you don’t give two shits about me, so let’s talk about you.”
Why is this segregated?
My parents will always specify if the person they’re referring to or telling a story about is black. So to help them see how pointless it is I will always specify when someone is white.
They never get it and they’ll always pause the conversation “what does him being white have to do with anything? You said he was driving a Benz, that’s normal for white people.”
“Somehow I’ve managed to remain alive.”
My favourite is similar “I continue to live”
Alternatively: “Despite my best efforts, I remain alive.”
“Relentlessly.”
“Moving forward at a rate of 1 second per second.”
Usually at work, in meetings.
Same as ever.
“I’m livin’ the dream (and would like to wake up)” is a personal favorite of mine.
“Another day in paradise.”
Is this a USian thing?
The phrases (And the totally unnecessary racial qualifiers) may be but I’m pretty sure men are conditioned to suppress their emotions anywhere there’s patriarchy, which is most places these days.
So, here’s a fuck up from earlier this year:
A family friend came over one day. I was out by my car, having returned from a visit to the shops. I hadn’t seen him in years, and he asks how I was. I responded with “Surviving”, before saying something about my degree progress and stuff.
He goes a bit quiet and awkward, eventually making his way inside while I finished what I was doing.
I walked inside and walked past my parents talking to him. Then I remembered something. His partner was diagnosed with a brain tumour that had metastasised from breast cancer. I also remembered that a few days ago, my parents went to visit his partner in the palliative care unit because she lost the fight. I realised then that he clearly came around to tell my parents that she had passed away. She fucking died and I responded with “Surviving”.
Oh shit. Thank you for sharing this.
The horrors persist but so do I
