sounds about white
- idiom
- Slur
:
suena muy de blancos (ofensivo, informal, EE. UU.)
- Someone called the police on a kid selling lemonade? Sounds about white to me.
Examples
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When the company ignored the complaints about diversity, she just shrugged and said, sounds about white.
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That excuse for being late sounds about white.
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He apologized for the mistake but didn't actually change anything, which sounds about white.
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When she said she forgot to pay the bill, it sounds about white.
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When he complained about the store running out of organic produce, his friend just nodded and said, sounds about white.
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After hearing his explanation for missing the meeting, she rolled her eyes and thought, sounds about white.
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When they justified their decision with privilege as the reason, it really sounds about white.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase uses a sarcastic, culturally specific meaning (judging something as typical of white people/white privilege) that cannot be derived simply from 'sound' (seem), 'about' (approximately/about), and 'white' (relating to white people). The construction plays on idiomatic patterns like 'sounds about right' and requires sociocultural and pragmatic knowledge of US informal discourse, so a B1 learner knowing the words would not reliably infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Sounds about white comes from a joking change of the common line sounds about right. People online began swapping right for white to point out actions or excuses that seem 'typical of white people' or show 'white privilege', so the phrase now means that something fits those patterns.
