White People Tacos

Submission 3,688

About

White People Tacos refers to memes and jokes about a kind of taco stereotypically associated with white Americans. In May 2020, a video of Keith Habersberger from the Try Guys singing a song called "White People Taco Night" went viral on TikTok, with the lyrics satirizing the kind of hard shell tacos that are made using premade grocery store ingredients. The idea of "white people tacos" is sometimes associated with Taco Tuesday, a corporate scheme devised to sell more tacos. In 2024, a clip of Tim Walz saying that he makes "white guy tacos" incited some controversy online, with several conservative internet users criticizing Kamala Harris for asking him if he makes tacos with tuna and mayo, and viewing his comment about disliking spicy food as "anti-white."

Origin

On May 17th, 2020, YouTuber Keith Habersberger from the Try Guys posted a video to the YouTube^[1] channel Lewberger titled, " White People Taco Night." In the video, Keith Habersberger sings about "White People Taco Night" in which they get hard shell tacos, ground beef, shredded cheese and Ortega sauce, all "from the grocery store."

Spread

The Keith Habersberger video subsequently inspired a TikTok trend in which people share their family's "White People Taco Night" meals, including a clip from March 18th, 2022, posted by TikToker^[2] @littlelizalizard, gathering over 10 million plays and 500,000 likes in two years (seen below, left) and a December 27th post from TikToker^[3] @jennnnnnnj gathered over 2 million views and 400,000 likes in two years (seen below, right).

Numerous memes referencing the cliche of "white people tacos" have been posted to various sites over the years, particularly starter pack memes.

For example, on January 22nd, 2021, Redditor No_myghostwaswithme posted a "white person taco starter pack" meme to the /r/starterpacks^[8] subreddit (seen below, left), receiving over 18,000 upvotes and 1,200 comments in roughly four years. On December 3rd, 2022, Redditor ThisEuropeanLife posted a similar version to the /r/starterpacks^[9] sub, receiving over 1,600 upvotes and 250 comments in two years (seen below, right).

Tim Walz's 'White Guy Taco' Spice Comment

On August 15th, 2024, Tim Walz posted a video to his X / Twitter account in which he and Kamala Harris can be heard talking about tacos. After Walz says that he makes "white guy tacos," Harris can be heard asking him if he means, "mayonnaise and tuna," to which Walz responds with, "Pretty much ground beef and cheese." Walz captioned the post, "Listen, I’m just not much of a spice guy." The post received over 9.2 million views, 50,000 likes and 8,200 comments in 22 hours (seen below).

Various internet users then discussed what "white guy tacos" could mean in this context, with X^[4] user @_cingraham posting a photo of a taco-like dish made using chips and served in a chip bag on August 15th, gathering over 1,600 likes in a day (seen below, left). A day later, X^[5] user @RiverTamYDN quoted the post, writing, "No, he's just talking about the standard White People Taco Kit Tacos" (seen below, right).

However, some internet users, notably many conservatives and Trump supporters, took Walz's comment to be derogatory of white people, as seen in an August 15th, 2024, post by X^[6] user @9mm_smg, who wrote, "The old 'wypipo don't season they food' bit. These people hate us, Tim included."

Also on August 15th, X^[7] user @BasedTorba quoted the video, writing, "A phoney and obviously scripted anti-White hate clip with the self-hating White man belittling himself to the cackling brown woman, a brilliant campaign move to entertain braindead White libs who love this stuff because they hate themselves and their people." The post gathered over 8,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).