About Their Eyes Were Watching ...
2009
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Choe Sang-Hun of The New York Times recently reported on how South Korea is dealing with race in the wake of a growing migrant community. Anti-discrimination legislation in the country has been met with opposition from critics citing a difficulty "to define what was racially or culturally offensive."
Here in the U.S. we're all scrambling for the same sense of clarity, especially when it comes to humor. Honestly, what constitutes as offensive these days and what is just plain funny?
Racialicious' Deputy Editor asked the same question this week. Thea Lim blogged about Cornel West's appearance on The Colbert Report last week. Lim inquired as to whether Colbert, with his trademark satirical style, was "just using West to make white folks laugh?" Here at The Root, we've examined how humor can, at times, cross the line, but how do you know when to stop laughing and start reacting? Should we stop being so sensitive? And if so, how can Seoul save itself from all this race-related confusion?
Clutch magazine's "What to Expect When Dealing With The Racially Impaired" offers a little clarity. Deputy Editor Sky Obercam has compiled a list of signs for spotting the "racially impaired." Obercam includes a handful of awkward moments that we've all unfortunately experienced, including the statement, "But my best friend is black!" And my personal fave: ignoramuses who discuss Africa as if it is one big country.
Perhaps, recognizing signs of prejudice get us closer to defining the big "no-nos" -- what to say and what not say around members of a certain race. What say you?
--SAARET E. YOSEPH
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At dinner, "Jim", the shrink-wrap saleman, told me all about how he moved to a Jewish neighborhood from West Hollywood because he "didn't like the lifestyle," and two lesbians had cursed him out for suggesting they should go inside to kiss. He had complaints about his new neighbors: they might ask him to turn off the sprinkler or whatever after dark on their holidays, and they had loud family dinners and kept their children up too late, "sometimes until 10 p.m.", BUT "there's no crime and at least they're all white." Yes, I should have left immediately, but I thought I was being overly reactive, and just changed the subject. My bad.
Simple, if I laugh it was funny... if I kick your @ss it was offensive.
That is question I ask myself when I watch comedy and many people do not understand the difference. Examples:
1 - The David Chappelle sketch when he is a blind, black klansman made fun of racism. I think this is fine.
2 - The David Chappelle sketch when he played the stereotypical, elderly Chinese master, who pronounces his l's as r's, made fun of race and was not cool. I congratulate Chappelle for protesting the airing of the sketch.
you have to trust your own inner instinct like KChristian said. The other thing is to know your audience. I've run into several instances of my white co-workers saying stuff that I didn't (nor the other few black folks who worked there) find funny that I think they thought I would find amusing. They were wrong. Just because I seem cool doesn't mean I find all your jokes funny (especially the racial ones...I say skip those all together at work so no one's feelings get hurt).
@Marilyn: Girl I wouldn't have made it past the appetizer if he started with that joke...you are better than me...LOL.
I do think we have to be careful about what we start saying is funny and is not i.e. SNL has always made fun of the sitting president (right or wrong). But, in the case now staying true to doing just that and not crossing that line of "so a black man walked into a bar...." can be a hard thing to do. They will be judged on not what they do but how they do it. And with Colbert he uses a lot of things to just slap people right in the face (most time white people) with their actions.
So yea - funny is funny and I think on most levels we can see what is and isn't and if it has gone beyond funny our own instincts many times will let us know when to say that is enough.
This is a topic that comes up again and again because it is a topic that is meaningful to many people. (Hate to say meaningful to all --- cause their are people who just don't care)
If we need someone else to inform us that we are offended ... maybe .... just maybe, we arent really that offended. Sometimes a joke is a joke. Sometimes its political humor. One would expect SNL to poke fun at the President ... as they have previously ... and he is not above being lampooned.
What is even more difficult is ... who is the leader or consensus of a group to tell us technically what is offensive to the entire group? What is offensive to one member of the group may not be to another, and neither may represent the majority, if there even is a majority.
Once I was out on a disastrous date with a white man, who started telling me a joke that started with "A black man walked into a . . ." and I told him "I don't want to hear that joke." He immediately said, "OK, a Polish guy walked into a . . ." (My grandfather was Polish). Then I started screaming. Needless to say, there was no second date, but the last thing he said was "I'll call you!"
Saturday Night Live uses black face every week. They take someone who is a "creamy eggshell kind of tan" and make him black. They allow him to be insulting as the first black president of the united states.Why? Because we were silent when they black faced jesse jackson. We thought the portrayal was hysterical... and it was. And this is what we get. Black face president for 8 years. Fred Armisen getting rich because he played in black face. And again, this is our fault. When I started writing about it on the HuffingtonPost I was told to lighten up. That Fred was other not white, but guess what, he is still in black face and we're going to see a lot more of it. There is a reason the Antidefamation league has way more success than we do. They react to everything. And they do it because laughing at Jesse Jackson has let us be Bamboozled on SNL.
It's all about who you are talking to. What their morals are, their ideals, and values. Most Black people in inner city areas laugh at jokes that would offend suburban gentry. Environment? I think it's more people don't liek being the butt of a joke than what is actually said. I mean Irish jokes are plentiful, but the social response is very different than the Black community. Is it our right to express more deep seated hatred than another race when confronted with off-color jokes?
It seems when a Black joke is told, it hits harder because it's expected to.