Re: inappropriate racist and other offensive material
On Sunday 17 March 2002 21:45, Tom Cook wrote:
> > > Any racism you perceive in either of those two statements is
> > > purely your own ignorance and knee-jerk political correctness.
> >
> > b.s.! making fun of someone else's skin color is patently wrong,
> > and i don't care how you want to slice it or garnish it with "red
> > herring":
>
> I don't think I agree with this. Why is racism any different to
<snipped text here>
> of our age. Why do people find a joke about, say, the way they walk
> offensive? Because they are not comfortable with it themselves! I
> am happy with people joking at the shape of my knees, because I don't
> mind what my knees look like; they serve their purpose passing well.
> I am happy with people joking at the clothes I wear; I choose my
> clothes because they keep me warm, or not as warm as the environment
> may demand. I am happy with people joking at my family; my family
> is among the best I have known, and I don't think they have a case to
> answer for the way they have brought me up. And I am happy with
> people joking at my religion, because I am confident that I will be
> justified in the day when Christ returns. Where am I going with
> this? I am not quite sure, but it seems to me that we are
> over-sensitive on some issues which don't deserve such extra
> consideration over others.
I would like to make clear that there is, from my point of view at
least, a big differency between 'patently wrong and offensive' and
'racism'. Or at least, there is a differency and the limit between them
is not quite precise.
If I just joke about the color of your skin or your religion, for
example, you can be offended or, perhaps, you can even find the joke
amusing. That depends on your sensibility. A joke about dead people can
be either very amusing or devastating, depending on the very audience,
if for example you lost a relative or loved one recently. Personally, I
consider this can be of very bad taste but I don't think it's a crime.
On the other hand, denying a job position or killing you merely because
of the color of your skin _is_ racism, there is no joke at all about
that and in many countries this is plain criminal.
The fact that there have been (and there is still) so much cruelty
associated to racism and other forms of discrimination turns the
subject of the jokes into a very sensitive area.
I'm from Argentina and I know what is it said about people from my
country who try to make a better life emigrating to more developed
countries. Very capable engineers and other professionals have to
accept low skill jobs in unfair conditions, without legal contracts and
being humiliated, in order to make a live.
Almost surely I'm biased by the fact that I live in a third world
country, but I feel strongly that been so touchy about offensive jokes
and banning them is like sweeping the actual problems under the carpet.
I don't care of jokes about my nationality, I'm concerned about
equality of opportunities.
When you are hungry, you don't care so much about jokes, you do care
about food.
--
Daniel Toffetti --- 'There is no spoon...' - The Matrix
Running the bleeding edge Debian Sid version 3.0
Linux luni 2.4.13 #1 SMP Sun Oct 28 18:30:53 ART 2001 i686 unknown
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