"You'd have to have been living under a rock not to notice this until now, fat asses have entered the respectable white mainstream."
If you're not careful, it's easy to conflate two similar but distinct trends:
1. Asses as a sexual focus.
2. Big juicy phat asses over little ones.
The NYT is definitely conflating the two. And while #1 is already here, we have some ways to go before #2 is dominant. Without #1 in place, #2 will not happen. But plenty of people, especially white girls who think big asses are gross or ghetto, are stuck on #1 and not yet at #2.
Also, I definitely see a generational trend of older women, 35+ conceiving of their tits as the erogenous zone of choice while it's the ass for younger girls.
I would disagree with you - phat asses have entered the mainstream white consciousness, but they have yet to attain respectability, let alone high status. You can bet that otherwise hot white girls will snark on white girls with phat asses.
We need a bunch of high profile white celebrities and athletes that choose white, big booty girlfriends and wives. And I specifically say white on white because if the girl or the guy in the couple is black, white girls will quickly dismiss it as 'a black people thing' or 'he justs like black girls.'
And Kate Upton as a popular female celebrity with a mediocre ass, is our greatest enemy...