Ethnic Jokes

[Yusuf Evans]

Would you get offended if a person said an ethnic joke around you? You hear it all the time on television from every comedian except white ones. Carlos Mencia made a good point that the only people not allowed to tell racial jokes are white people and why is that? Is it simply because people aren't willing to move on past their current prejudices?

 

[spartacus1984]

Jerry The Guru
400 years of Slavery of Africans by “white” European may have some thing to do with it And the slaughter of 12 million Native Americans by “white” European that Arrived in American, European who now call themselves American?
And were the Nazis good at telling jokes about Jews?

 

[Nithavela]

Usually I just laugh if the joke is funny. I don't know about you. How about this one:

A Jewish businessman warned his son against marrying a non-Jew.

The son replied, "But she's converting to Judaism." "It doesn't matter," the old man said. "A shiksa will cause problems." The son persisted.

After the wedding, the father called the son, who was in business with him, and asked him why he was not at work. "It's Shabbos," the son replied.

The father was surprised: "But we always work on Saturday. It's our busiest day."
"I won't work anymore on Saturday," the son insisted,"because my wife wants us to go to shul on Shabbos."

"See," the father said. "I told you marrying a non-Jew would cause problems."

 

[.Sabre.]

Nithavela: It's pretty funny.

And for the information of anyone else, I am not racist. I don't like it when someone says "My bloodline is better than yours" or some such thing...it vexes me to the point of no return.

Back to the topic: jokes are generally not meant to be insulting.

 

[Lynden1000]

I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, and I still laugh at jokes about Southerners, even those that imply we're all inbred hillbillies.

Even if I were offended, I probably would laugh anyhow. Otherwise, if the person is trying to offend me, my laughter only frustrates that attempt.

 

[Electric Skeptic]

Back to the topic: jokes are generally not meant to be insulting.

They aren't? I disagree. Many jokes are meant to be insulting. Some racial jokes aren't - for example, the Jewish joke told above - but many are. They prey on negative stereotypes, perpetuating them. Jokes that make humour of of Jew's fiscal acumen/tightness, Poles/Irish stupidity, Australian Aborigines' laziness (a popular joke topic here) and so forth. All negative stereotypes, all spawning lots and lots of jokes. All very insulting.

 

[VinceNoir]

I think jokes in regard to sex, race, nationality, sexual orientation and religion are all to do with intent. If you intentionally set out to offend you probably will do...

 

[.Sabre.]

They aren't? I disagree. Many jokes are meant to be insulting. Some racial jokes aren't - for example, the Jewish joke told above - but many are. They prey on negative stereotypes, perpetuating them. Jokes that make humour of of Jew's fiscal acumen/tightness, Poles/Irish stupidity, Australian Aborigines' laziness (a popular joke topic here) and so forth. All negative stereotypes, all spawning lots and lots of jokes. All very insulting.

When someone intends to be offensive, I do not laugh. I tell them they are out of order.

 

[Maynard Keenan]

No. I even laugh at jokes about white people, southerners, Kentuckians, Catholics, Christians, etc. Of course I'm not a member of an oppressed class with still-fresh scars so I can't judge anyone who is offended by these sort of jokes.

 

[TinkaBella]

No. There is no room for being sensitive or getting offended among the people I am around. Sure, I feel bad for those who wander too close and DO get offended, but they either get over it and stick around or choose not to be part of our lives. Having a very diverse group makes it all the better. The fact is that nobody I know ever goes out of their way to say anything mean, but when a joke opportunity presents itself it's like a race to see who can jump on it first. Nobody is off limits. Nobody.....

 

[Pogue]

It depends very much on what the joke is, what the context is, and who's telling the joke. Comedians like Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning do offend me, because their humour is basically just intended as nastiness a lot of the time- they're intended to insult people. But I wouldn't go so far as to say that all racial jokes are offensive, because that raises the question of where you draw the line- could you, for example, make a joke about your own race or nationality without being insulting? I think you can.

 

[VinceNoir]

It depends very much on what the joke is, what the context is, and who's telling the joke. Comedians like Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning do offend me, because their humour is basically just intended as nastiness a lot of the time- they're intended to insult people. But I wouldn't go so far as to say that all racial jokes are offensive, because that raises the question of where you draw the line- could you, for example, make a joke about your own race or nationality without being insulting? I think you can.

I agree. And i think the fact that you can make a joke about your own race or nationality without being offensive is people know that you are not intending to be racist which people cant be entirely sure of if you make a joke about somebody else. The same goes for offensive words like "queer" and the "N-word", its all to do with intent and the only way people can be certain you're not being offensive is if you're a member of the group that would find it offensive.

As for Bernard Manning he was a third rate comedian and the only reason people are talking about his death and remembering him is his racism, and certainly not his "comedy".

 

[OdwinOddball]

Its all about the content of the joke, the situation it is told in, and the intent behind it.

If its truly meant as a joke, then no. If its meant to be a disparaging comment, then yes.

 

[BibleMadeMeDoIt]

Would you get offended if a person said an ethnic joke around you? You hear it all the time on television from every comedian except white ones. Carlos Mencia made a good point that the only people not allowed to tell racial jokes are white people and why is that? Is it simply because people aren't willing to move on past their current prejudices?

It's true, white people generally can not get away with it in public. In junior high I ate lunch with the Jewish kids, we had a no pork common bond, and those kids would tell all kinds of racist jokes and not a teacher in the room would say a word. Now if a white kid would have told the same exact joke, there would have been a public outrage.

 

[Beanieboy]

Nithavela: It's pretty funny.

And for the information of anyone else, I am not racist. I don't like it when someone says "My bloodline is better than yours" or some such thing...it vexes me to the point of no return.

Back to the topic: jokes are generally not meant to be insulting.

When I was a kid (40 years ago), we used to tell Pollock jokes. I thought Pollock meant idiot. It means a person of Polish decent.

So, while I might have thought they were funny jokes, someone who is Polish wouldn't.

And while one can claim they are harmless, it is meant to make the "other" seems less that you, and there is nothing funny about that.

 

[Electric Skeptic]

"Though the boys throw rocks at the frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest." - Plutarch

 

[Beanieboy]

It's true, white people generally can not get away with it in public. In junior high I ate lunch with the Jewish kids, we had a no pork common bond, and those kids would tell all kinds of racist jokes and not a teacher in the room would say a word. Now if a white kid would have told the same exact joke, there would have been a public outrage.

Historically, black people were the butt of jokes, made to look like monkeys, buffoons, characatures with them eating watermelon, people doing them in blackface. I always cringe in the antique shops with the pickininy big lipped dark skinned face that people once thought was "just good simple fun."


Even as late as 1984, a friend of mine had 2 sheets of n- jokes, ie., How do you get 2 black kids from jumping on the bed?

Now, I just think they are in bad taste.

And to feel "oppressed" by it is like Germans being "oppressed" by not being able to say a few Jew jokes.

 

[Beanieboy]

While this isn't the same thing, I understand being the end of a joke. I remember hearing f- jokes, AIDS jokes, or hearing people say, "I wish we could put them (gay people) all up against the wall and shoot them."

It takes a toll on your soul to be on the receiving end of that much constant hostility, even when "what do you call 25 gay guys on a bus at the bottom of the ocean? A good start" is meant to be funny, it does so at the expense of someone thinking that you are laughing at killing gay people, and thinking it funny.

Put yourself in their shoes.
Love your neighbor as yourself, you know?

 

[shye]

lol me being offended by jokes......tehehe, I joke about everything about any religious figures, but if I hear a joke about them and if they are funny I'll still laugh.

 

[m9lc]

A joke is just a joke... I suppose that as a white male, though, I can't really relate.

It seems to me that telling a joke can help to end such stereotypes. What better way to dispel intolerance than by laughing at it?