My personal opinion is that we have the “victim” mentality so entrenched into our society that we look for reasons to cry foul rather than

raising an alarm when something truly heinous happens.  Instead of laughing at something intended to be a joke, we let it get under our skin.  We try to hard to be “politically correct” that we’re willing to be very drab just to make sure we don’t accidentally offend someone.

The reason racist jokes are offensive is because we allow them to be offensive.  Take the classic Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles as a prime example.  I’ve heard that Cleavon Little (the black star of the movie) was questioned as to why he would star in such an “offensive” movie that constantly uses the “n-word.”  He explained that by poking fun at the blatant racism in that movie it took most of the negative connotations away.  How can anyone who sees the movie take racism seriously?  They took a very derogatory term and turned it into a joke.  Also by the end of the movie all of the people who were complaining about a colored sheriff were glad to have him there, so it showed exactly how racial prejudice accomplishes nothing.  After producing the movie, supposedly they received many complaint letters from people, but the interesting thing is all of them were from caucasians, not blacks who would be the ones to take offense.

A more recent example of a movie which treats racial stereotypes as a joke is Undercover Brother staring Eddie Griffin.  Its been a long time since I’ve seen it, but I remember the opening scene of the movie shows Eddie’s character in a stereotypical big “afro” hair style driving in a convertible, skidding tires around corners, while never spilling a drop of the orange (or was it grape) soda in his hand.  He gets to headquarters and the “password” to get in was a secret handshake with a robotic arm, where it replies “You’ve got soul!” before it lets him in.  If you get down to it, it is using several “black” stereotypes, as well as essentially saying Caucasians don’t have a soul.  Is it being “offensive” to everyone?  No, its just a joke!

Where do we draw the line over what is considered hateful or what is funny?  I’m a fat, Caucasian nerd, with glasses/contacts, semi-blond hair, a receding hairline which I normally just shave off completely, and I listen to eurodance music.  Do you know how many jokes I’ve heard that apply to something that I could take offense to? I don’t though because they’re funny! They aren’t meant to be hurtful so why should I allow them to bother me?  If we’re to say it is wrong to make a joke about a particular group’s skin color or religion, why don’t we say it is wrong to make jokes based on a group’s weight or hair color?  What about making jokes based on people from a particular region or state?  How about a profession such as being a lawyer?  Nearly every joke made is at someone’s expense, even if is at the expense of the joke teller themselves.  Show me one person who hasn’t told at least one blonde joke in their life, or a joke about a priest and a rabbi, or any number of similar joke and I’ll show you someone who has no sense of humor.

The black woman the mayor sent the joke to blew this thing completely out of proportion.  What did this accomplish?  Nothing except to draw attention to the image that would not have gone further had she simply deleted it.  Instead it was on the national news and put out on the Internet for everyone to see and pass along.  Even though the mayor appologized, she still said “it will be difficult for [us] to work together.”  I can agree with her there!  Now the mayor will be afraid to say anything to or around her just in case she decides to take offense to something and make it out to be some form of harassment.  I’m sorry, but if she felt the need to rat him out to the national press over something as trivial as this rather than deleting it and asking him not to send her things like that in the future, I wouldn’t want to be friends with her or work with her any longer either.  Talk about creating a “hostile work environment!”

The longer we allow these things to drive our emotions, the longer it will take to put an end to racism and hatred in general.  Well, I thought I would play some basketball this evening, but we all know “white men can’t jump.”  I guess I’ll just go home to my parents’ basement, order a pizza and drink Mountain Dew, while I play video games and look at adult magazines.  Sheesh.