Frustrating argument: racist jokes

[K=x'uksami]

I've been having an argument over the past few days with some people on another forum over the issue of racial humor. Now, since I have Aspergers and have trouble understanding the finer subtleties of social interaction, I tend to look at these jokes for what they appear to be literally, expressions of hierarchical, prejudiced thinking. However, these people insist that they aren't doing anything wrong by telling racist jokes because these jokes don't actually hurt anyone and they don't actually believe in racism. I'm as white as they come and I won't presume to speak for people of color, so I was hoping for some input from people here who are more familiar with these sort of issues.

[Steppenwolf]

Links help.

Its impossible to judge something you're asking for help with without examples.

[Yarrow]

i think racist jokes are generally harmless in current society (with exceptions, as you say) but the problem is generalisations are very hard to avoid.

[Zazaban]

Now racist jokes seem to be used ironically. For example, I've seen black people tell black jokes.

[ambi]

i think this video is both racist and funny... YMMV...

[Francois Tremblay]

Why doesn't Mexico have any good Olympic teams?

Because all the Mexicans that can run, jump or swim have already crossed the border.

[Guns]

I hope I don't get attacked for this too, but I think jokes that play on racial stereotypes are fucking funny. I actually think they're some of the funniest jokes, in the sense that I laugh out loud heartily when I hear a good one. There's an immensely popular graffiti forum online that has a much less "PC" attitude than this one and there's a long long thread that lists some hilarious ones.
Sorry for offending everyone or whatever..

[ambi]

[birthday pony]

I completely understand why people think racist jokes are offensive, and I can see how one can be funny when it just springs out in an unexpected way.

I don't get why people become huge fans of them though. Once you've heard a bunch of racist jokes doesn't it cease to be ironic and just start being racist? It's not shocking when you hear them all the time.

[Guns]

I completely understand why people think racist jokes are offensive, and I can see how one can be funny when it just springs out in an unexpected way.

I don't get why people become huge fans of them though. Once you've heard a bunch of racist jokes doesn't it cease to be ironic and just start being racist? It's not shocking when you hear them all the time.

has a good point. I doubt there are HUGE FANS of racist jokes, in the same way Star Wars has huge fans (or doughnuts have HUGE fans ) but I can see how it can be taken too far, like there are people who actually believe the stereotypes that fuel the 'racist' humor.

[ambi]

i've definitely met people who are so obsessed with race that almost all of their humor revolved around it. it's a tricky little line isn't it.

i can also think of three different occasions where dish-it-out-but-cant-take-it was the order of the day.

one was an "israeli" telling jokes about arabs and persians. so i told a few "israeli" jokes. he got very very mad and threatened to kill me.

one was french. he had lots of jokes about germans and brits. so i told a french joke. we were then treated to a 30 minute lecture on how great france is (yawn).

third one was a white guy. had everything to say about every race (asians and africans being his fav targets). then one day at a party i jokingly told him he was doing the 'white guy' dance. he told me i was a racist! lol

so, yes indeed racial humor can be funny as hell. it can also be a cover for fucking racists.

[Guns]

Oh man I forgot about this clip! Soo funny - we all know that's a generalization though, I have a "black friend" ( ) that HATES the way "black people" are "supposed" to act. He listens to black metal just as much as he listens to hip hop, and he always makes fun of goofy people of any race. One thing i don't like about these stereotypes is that most often it's people in the group that perpetuate them (as illustrated in the clip). Like when I'm kickin back with some friends that listen to the recently emerged 'southern rap', they think it's goofy or whatever to be all 'worked up' and 'rock out' to any kind of rock music - like it's in your genes to only respond to certain forms of music and in certain ways; which is quite annoying. Nowadays i listen to music no one can get into, like experimental-ambient-drone-noise-black metal-abstract rap-glitch, so I've just given up on relating to people musically... not really though, actually, it's helped me. When I'm at work and some guys are talking about rap, i can totally hold my own in the conversation cuz i'm into triple-six mafia, then that night at a party i can get along with the kids cloaked in black or the art-school kiddies in plaid button ups... strange world. IDK, it's interesting that this clip was related to music because i think music has the ability to speak across borders like race and shit... there's black metal bands in Afghanistan - i wonder how welcome they are in their culture?

[ambi]

???

link

[Aaronmedia]

As a non-white person, I'll say that racial humor done as satire, parody, irony can be brilliant. I can usually tell the difference between that and someone being a racist fucker, even if it's in "jest."

[Superdog]

so, yes indeed racial humor can be funny as hell. it can also be a cover for fucking racists.

Yeah it certainly does depend on the person and the context. I know people who would say racist jokes...because they were actually really really racist. I'm from a small town, so I've heard a few.

On the other hand...if I get screwed over by the bank, I might say to my brother "Damn Jews and their controlling the money suppply from their vault deep within the earth's core." I'm not making fun of Jews, I'm having a laugh at the expense of people who actually believe that junk. (Ron Paul voters, example.)