novapsyche | (no subject)

I know it's silly of me to continue to watch the thread over at MSNBC over the Imus controversy. It's degenerated even from where it was two days ago. I think I read it because like a train wreck it is so grotesque you can't look away.

There are people who chastise Black people for being "thin-skinned" and overly sensitive. "It's just a word! Get over it!" Or, "I haven't seen you chained and picking cotton lately." As

greeneyedkzin said over in

ginmar's journal, "Once again, we have a demonstration of how 'cancha take a joke' is asking less-privileged people to be complicit in their own denigration."

Then you have people who switch roles and claim victim status. Someone actually said, "It has become a social stigma to be a white person." Someone else stated that while Blacks are allowed to call each other the N-word, if a White person says something racial then "they" (Blacks) want to kill them. Kill them.

Remember, this controversy started out by a celebrity, who happens to be a Caucasian male, saying denigrating things about basketball players, who happen to be black and female. But somehow, the conversation (if you want to call it that) has drifted into Blacks wanting to kill Whites.

Then you have people who equate racism with a fad, like bellbottoms. "People of my generation have gotten over racism." "It's so 1990s."

I really fear for the future of my country.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think there are a lot of assumptions in your comments here, namely that

1. The goal should be to minimize differences.
2. That it's OK for one person to make racially-charged jokes just because another person "gets away" with it (Tu Quoque fallacy here?).
3. That people are picking sides by race.

I'm not saying you're wrong on any of those, just that they're pretty big assumptions.

1) The goal should be to minimize differences OF TREATMENT. A diverse culture is fine so long as no segment of it is exclusive to outsiders, which black culture really is. You can't both say "We're different, we want to be treated differently" and "Treat us as equals." The two are mutually exclusive.

2) If it's not OK for ANYBODY to make racially-charged jokes, your first mission should be to shut down all stand-up comedy in this country. Once you do that, THEN it's fair to start banging on the doors of guys who do that on the radio. You can't call what Imus said "despicable, deplorable, unconscionable" while at the same time laughing at Chappelle's skits about Whitey. They're equally racist, but (in my opinion) neither was said in hatred like Mel Gibson's or Michael Richards's were. There's a difference racially-charged and racial-hatred charged.

If you wont' watch a Chappelle show episode, how would YOU know what kind of jokes he makes? For your information, he makes racially-related jokes, but doesn't "dig on whitey." I also don't think Mencia makes (for the most part) racial-hatred jokes, he's usually making fun of racial stereotypes.

Imus wasn't being clever, he was just being racist. There's a difference between making fun of a stereotype and perpetuating it.

I'm not a big fan of the same kind of humor when it comes to gender, either. I am being consistent. I HATE the kind of standup that goes, "Oh, you know how women are. They're always doing X, Y and Z. And you know dudes are different, they're always doing A, B, and C."

I HAVE seen Chappelle show episodes. Four or five. That's *why* I won't watch any more of them.

Chapelle goes around calling specific people bitches and whores?

Because that's what much of this is about. Imus did not make general statements. He called a specific group of women whores, using racial epithets.

I don't know that Chappelle et al have ever done anything similar.

Chapelle goes around calling specific people bitches and whores?

Huh? I don't think so. I don't watch his show just because I don't think it's funny.