We need a climate where it's not acceptable for people to make racist comments without penalty.
In that case it has to be all-encompassing. Racist comments (of the Gibson ilk) and racist jokes (Mencia et al) are often too close together to tell the difference. Often it's a matter of tone, delivery, context, and yes, even race of the speaker. While 90-95% of the time you can tell the difference, satire's a fine art form and often intent is the only difference between hate-speech and mockery of same, and intent isn't always easy to discern. (Especially in print form.) For example, is Apu on The Simpsons a perpetuation of a racial stereotype, or mockery of that stereotype? Or maybe both? Mockery of a thing DOES perpetuate it. Fighting over it DOES perpetuate it. You want the stereotypes and hate-speech to go away? Get rid of all of it, then. And on both sides of the aisle. No more of black guys saying, "Hey, my nigga!" to one another, no more rap songs talking about bitches and hos, no more of any of that. As long as it's perpetuated on one side, the other will use it. You don't hear Jews calling one another kikes, do you?
Picking and choosing comments to slam just because it's a slow news week makes things worse, not better. Especially when it's a guy like Imus, whose entire career was built on being a shock-jock. People listen to him HOPING to be offended, just like Howard Stern or Ice-T (back in his rapper days) or a hundred others, so when he says something offensive it's hardly a surprise. What you're talking about is basically cutting out an entire segment of "acceptable" speech, and while I think it's a great idea I don't see it happening any time soon.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-10 08:41 pm (UTC)In that case it has to be all-encompassing. Racist comments (of the Gibson ilk) and racist jokes (Mencia et al) are often too close together to tell the difference. Often it's a matter of tone, delivery, context, and yes, even race of the speaker. While 90-95% of the time you can tell the difference, satire's a fine art form and often intent is the only difference between hate-speech and mockery of same, and intent isn't always easy to discern. (Especially in print form.) For example, is Apu on The Simpsons a perpetuation of a racial stereotype, or mockery of that stereotype? Or maybe both? Mockery of a thing DOES perpetuate it. Fighting over it DOES perpetuate it. You want the stereotypes and hate-speech to go away? Get rid of all of it, then. And on both sides of the aisle. No more of black guys saying, "Hey, my nigga!" to one another, no more rap songs talking about bitches and hos, no more of any of that. As long as it's perpetuated on one side, the other will use it. You don't hear Jews calling one another kikes, do you?
Picking and choosing comments to slam just because it's a slow news week makes things worse, not better. Especially when it's a guy like Imus, whose entire career was built on being a shock-jock. People listen to him HOPING to be offended, just like Howard Stern or Ice-T (back in his rapper days) or a hundred others, so when he says something offensive it's hardly a surprise. What you're talking about is basically cutting out an entire segment of "acceptable" speech, and while I think it's a great idea I don't see it happening any time soon.