Frustrating argument: racist jokes

[ambi]

[Zazaban]

Lycans

[FirePirate]

I am Indian but I've lived in Dubai most of my life. Rascism is rampant there in subtle ways, but you see it. The topic on jokes, out of experience I am not offended by it living in Dubai as it is not against any laws or whatever to be rascist or say rascist jokes, if I crack one in Dubai no one could hols it against me, and it's pretty common to have rascist jokes in seriousness and just for fun flying around.

I have been living in Canada now now, seeing as someone can hold a rascist comment against me is starting to make me feel bad about cracking one and sometimes when someone makes a joke about me I kinda shift in my chair a little.

[ambi]

on a visit to dubai, a guy tried to sell me some pot. just came right up to me at a bar and offered it to me. i responded that i didn't really like the idea of spending the next four years of my life in jail, so no thanks. he laughed, and we started talking. in the end he said he approached me because i was neither white nor arab, and therefore he was certain i would want some weed... i guess it's a stereotype there...

[FirePirate]

Yeah that happens alot. I personally never get offered though mainly cause brown people are sterotyped as "cheap" and "tattletales".

And the weeds pretty stale too.

[Theory5]

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.

First, I am glad that you acknowledge your "disability" and that you dont try to hide from it or act like you understand (I have ADHD which is considered a disability and constitutes trouble paying attention etc.) What is aspergers? I am curious because there is a kid in our class who doesn't seem to understand that we joke and doesnt seem to understand social interaction, he hides it though, which makes me think less of him, but he is still an okay guy. I figure the more I understand about people, with or without disabilities, the easier it will be for me to talk to them, when I was younger I never really interacted and now that I am in high school I have started interacting with other more and more.
Oh racist jokes are hilarious, but only if you have consent from a member of the group you are making fun of, and when they ask you to stop, you stop. I do this with my friends at school all the time. We are a diverse bunch, I am jewish, and the other kids are 1/2 black, cape verdian( another form of black), brazilian, practically full blooded irish, and italian. But you must always be careful, because these jokes can be a sharp edged sword even when someone receives them with a smile. I wouldnt post it on forums though because it would remain there and people might take offense. One of the things I do make sure of when I tell a racial joke is that I make sure I know of that the people who are going to be the but of my joke are okay with it and I know them. If I tell a racial joke to another white person then I feel as if I am being offensive.

[Maggot]

What is aspergers?

Asperger's is high-functioning autism. I have that along with bipolar disorder.

[Hazzard]

I don't mind them as long as they're harmless (i.e., white people can't dance) and the person doesn't believe the stereotype (I'm a white guy, and while I can't dance that well, I know those who can). Or, alternately, if they're expressing disapproval of racism in a humorous way. One joke I liked was the following:

A black guy gets hit by a car, crashes through the windshield, and to top it all off, is then arrested for breaking and entering.

I see that as an anti-racist joke, personally. Of course he wouldn't be arrested for breaking and entering in such a situation, but of course the implication is that the police will look for any excuse to arrest him.

'Cause they're dicks.

[Zazaban]

A black man goes around the entire country and steals from everyone he can find. He becomes a notorious criminal, and people all over are looking for him. He is wanted dead or alive. Soon, he is arrested and thrown is jail. The police are given a pat on the back. Well down guys.

A white man goes around the entire country and steals from everyone he can find. People love him. He wins the re-election.


That one doesn't quite work anymore.

[Montanarchist]

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.

I'm glad this was brought up. Also, I understand where you are coming from, my younger sister has aspergers and I know how a lot of underlying social connotations in conversation can be lost. . .especially in humor. I think superdog put it best. . .I laugh at racist jokes, even crack a few myself, because at heart I am laughing at the fact that people ACTUALLY THINK LIKE THAT. And that's the sad (but funny) truth. Also, I come from a homogenized climate. Most of the people I interact with on a daily basis are white and Native American (note I said most). Racial jokes are NOT common among aquaintances, but amongst good friends laughing at the ignorance. Many people around here are also sometimes just plain scared to specify things like "My black friend" or "my Blackfoot friend," and so when any racial stereotype joke comes out, a slurry of laughter is heard because it eases the tension. I dunno. Just some thoughts.

[trueness]

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.

First, I am glad that you acknowledge your "disability" and that you dont try to hide from it or act like you understand (I have ADHD which is considered a disability and constitutes trouble paying attention etc.) What is aspergers? I am curious because there is a kid in our class who doesn't seem to understand that we joke and doesnt seem to understand social interaction, he hides it though, which makes me think less of him, but he is still an okay guy. I figure the more I understand about people, with or without disabilities, the easier it will be for me to talk to them, when I was younger I never really interacted and now that I am in high school I have started interacting with other more and more.
Oh racist jokes are hilarious, but only if you have consent from a member of the group you are making fun of, and when they ask you to stop, you stop. I do this with my friends at school all the time. We are a diverse bunch, I am jewish, and the other kids are 1/2 black, cape verdian( another form of black), brazilian, practically full blooded irish, and italian. But you must always be careful, because these jokes can be a sharp edged sword even when someone receives them with a smile. I wouldnt post it on forums though because it would remain there and people might take offense. One of the things I do make sure of when I tell a racial joke is that I make sure I know of that the people who are going to be the but of my joke are okay with it and I know them. If I tell a racial joke to another white person then I feel as if I am being offensive.

This is a little off topic. It's great you understand where your strengths and weaknesses are, but I feel that things like "Asperger's" and "ADHD" are just labels created by capitalist society to tell people who think differently that they're diseased and try to get them to conform. All this labeling and prescribing is symptomatic of capitalism with it's ever increasing emphasis on conformity. A long time ago people just recognized where they were strong and where they were weak and they worked on it or if they couldn't improve something they worked around it without needing a label slapped on them.

In fact if you look at it a lot of whether you get labelled depends on society's "priorities". Do well academically and you'll never be diagnosed in school with ADHD no matter how inattentive or hyper you are. I've taken the Adult ADD test that they actually use in real life online and it says I have it but I haven't gone in for a formal diagnosis. The way I feel about it is the psychiatric establishment missed this one and so I got lucky that nobody tried to change who I am with pills. I think if I had been evaluated back in school I would've been diagnosed, but was never evaluated because I did well in school. I often knew half the stuff before even going into the next grade so I didn't really have to pay attention. The only thing I had any trouble with was organization which almost got bad enough one year that I got evaluated but then my grades shot back up(mostly cause I doubled my efforts to avoid evaluation) and my parents decided not to.

Throughout my life people often ask if I have ADD/ADHD, so that's why I took the online test. I do notice sometimes I have trouble with changing my attention from one thing to another, paying attention to more than one thing at a time, and people will tell me things and sometimes I won't notice. So I'm aware of those problems and work around that, but that's good enough for me without needing to label myself. I'm also kind of hyper and love doing random things, though I didn't used to be hyper. I like that part of myself.

[leadhead]

Win!

[Huston]

Now we need funny pictures of Timothy Geithner, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and Henry Kissinger.

Although, I think this looks like Geithner:

[yelfauno]

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."

Racial humor can be pretty hilarious. As long as you don't say it with all seriousness, you can't take it as a serious comment. Be light-hearted. I'm Mexican, and beaner jokes are hilarious. I don't think anyone should be taking racial "jokes" as serious as they have been.

[Jawn Disease]

Alright so there's this white American university student. He goes to university for years and years and gets his degree and his masters and his doctorate and finally he is allowed to go on his first anthropological mission. He has to go study a very primitive, forest-dwelling tribe in Africa.

This tribe is a shepherd society. They eat the sheep, make their clothes from wool, use the sheep bones for tools, and use all parts of the sheep for every possible purpose.

After a few years living with the tribe, he becomes very close with them, learns their language fluently, and in fact becomes good friends with the chief of the tribe.

but one day, the chief's oldest unmarried daughter has a WHITE baby. The chief is understandably angered, even though the Westerner is his friend, and he goes to the anthropologist with his machete and says, "Either you explain exactly what is going on, or I cut your throat right now." The anthropologist, terrified, thinks very quickly.

He says, sweating in terror, "I know exactly what's going on. It's just like your sheep! Most of them are white sheep, but every once in a while, a black one comes out. It's natural. It's just like that!"

the chief stiffens and falls silent. Finally he says, "Well. I see. I see how it is. I won't tell anybody about the white baby if you don't tell anybody about the black sheep."

See, that's a fucking good racist joke, it got me a job once. racist jokes are hilarious because racism is hilarious.