Follow up

Ok, this is just a short post to answer a comment on my racism post.

Amanda said:

“I agree that racism goes both ways. But I think Don Imus shouldn't have made that comment.”

I completely and totally agree, it was in bad taste. My point, however, is he got fired and will probably never work in broadcasting again. It was a throwaway comment that literally ended his career. However, the penalty was only so great because it was a white man commenting on a black team.

Compare that outcome to what would happen if a black announcer had referred to a white team as a bunch of “honkys”. Absolutely nothing would happen. At worst, he or she might be asked to make an apology, but it certainly wouldn’t end their career.

Amanda then went on to say:

“Your example of the longest yard isn't right. I mean that's literally calling a black person dumb rather that just saying haha typically he's bad at sports.. i just think your example is unequal.”

For this one I completely and totally disagree. Let me explain why:

Both jokes consist of a self-depreciating comment using a racist generalization as illustration. I chose this line as an example to specifically point out two things: First is the double standard, secondly that a white guy can still come off as a racist even when he’s the butt of his own joke.

You’re saying is that Chris Rock’s joke simply says that ‘Chris Rock is bad at sports’, yet Adam Sandler’s joke is a slur against black people. Chris Rock is just saying he’s terrible at sports, but Adam Sandler is calling black people dumb.

In a way, you’ve proven my point for me. We’ve become so conditioned to see racist jokes that make fun of white people as perfectly acceptable, that we accept them without comment. On the other hand, the opposite is completely and totally unacceptable.

As I said in my last post, we see a black comedian spending an hour ripping on white people as just funny comedy, but if a white guy tells one black joke he’s a racist.

Think about the ‘Longest Yard’ joke:

“I was so bad at sports at school, I only got picked after the white kids.”

How does that just say that Chris Rock is bad at sports? It says that only if we accept the generalization that all white people suck at sports. Of course, that isn’t true and as such is a racist comment, plain and simple.

From the Dictionary:

Racism - The belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior

Chris Rock’s joke plainly states the idea that his race is superior to whites in the area of sports. How can that not be seen as racist?

The point is that we’ve gotten so used to this kind of humor that the anti-white stereotype jokes have been almost accepted as fact. White people can’t dance, White people are bad at sports, etc, etc.

My main point is that there’s no difference at all between those jokes, we’ve just been conditioned to see one as acceptable and the other as unacceptable.

Long story short, my initial conclusion still stands:

In society today it’s perfectly acceptable for minorities to make fun of white people, but if a white guy makes fun of any minority he’s in for a lot of trouble.

The way I see it, either everything’s fair game, or nothing is.