Racism?

Last night I was flicking through the TV and found myself watching a Chris Rock stand-up special.

Here’s the deal. Chris Rock is simply one of the most racist individuals in America today. I mean his entire act was racist comedy. I mean, every single joke was just an attack on white people.

Now, let me be absolutely clear here. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. I’ve watched tons of comedians rip white folks a new one and laughed my ass off the entire way through it. I can take a joke, and if it’s funny, I’ll like it.

The reason I single Chris Rock out as racist is he’s one of those people who thinks it’s fine to make fun of whites, but cries racism if someone tells a black joke. He’s got a huge chip on his shoulder and loves to display it.

I’ve heard people have used the term ‘reverse racism’ to describe this, which just completely highlights to me how wrong people have it. There’s no such thing as ‘reverse racism’ because that implies that racism only goes one way. I hate to be the one to say this, but it is possible to have a racist black guy, a racist Mexican, etc.

Unfortunately, that’s the problem. We see only white people as being capable of racism.

I’ve noticed this trend in comedy. If you watch a white comedian, you’ll see someone tell funny stories and jokes. If you watch an ‘ethnic’ comedian, 99 times out of a hundred, what you’re in for is an hour of nothing but racial jokes.

Now this is fine. The comedians I particularly like are the ones that make fun out of everybody. I personally think that if everyone just decided it was ok to make fun out of everyone else, we’d all get along a lot better.

There’s nothing offensive about a lot of racial comedy, especially if the things they talk about are actually true. The problem is it’s not a two way street.

That’s the thing that pisses me off.

Chris Rock gets on stage and tells nothing but white jokes, but Don Imus says “Nappy-headed ho’s” and he loses his job in the middle of a national scandal.

If you don’t believe me, try the following experiment. The next time you’re watching a movie, TV show or comedy special and a minority makes a racial joke, imagine he’s white and flip the joke.

For example, in “The Longest Yard” Chris Rock says:

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

Now imagine that instead of Chris Rock, it was Adam Sandler who said something like:

“I was so dumb at school I got lower test scores than the black kids.”

See what I mean? Exactly the same joke, but when Chris Rock says it, everyone laughs. If Adam Sandler had said it, his career would be over.

Now again, to be absolutely clear, even though I know that a few people reading this will brand me as a racist anyway, if you want to make white jokes, go right ahead. I’ve never heard a white joke that’s offended me.

The problem is, you can’t go on stage, rip white people a new one…and they cry fowl if we do it back. Minority comedians can have nothing but ‘racist’ material and be successful…but if a white guy makes a racial joke, it’s career suicide.

This goes for all other areas as well.

Major Ray Nagin of New Orleans said he wanted to rebuild a ‘Chocolate city’ after Katrina…Imagine if Arnie said he wanted to rebuild a ‘Vanilla’ California if Katrina had struck there? Would he still be in office?

Basically it comes down to equality. If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out.