Is Sash Baron Cohen's portrayal of Borat racist?

Question

Why is it ok to portray people from Kazakhstan as ignorant and racist.

How would people react if the character was from Africa

Answer 1

Very true...I don't even find it funny !!

Answer 2

I agree. It is bizarre that in this time of hypersensitivity to religion, race, etc, there's a bloke going around saying that Kazakhstan's national pastimes are table tennis, archery and rape.

Having said that, I don't want comedy to become infected by the crazy political correctness that has infiltrated everything else. The real tragedy is that the vast majority will never know how beautiful Kazakhstan and its people are and will just think of Borat.

Answer 3

Terry Southern and Stanley Kubrick portraited the Russian Premier as a drunk who frequents houses of ill repute and eveyrone found it a riot of a movie (Dr Strangelove)!

I have a hard time telling Borat apart from the President of Iran. They look almost the same and both say silly things that make me laugh and cringe at the same time.

Cohen is taking on another country next and doing a Gay character.

Oh, Saturday Night Live did take on Africa once, with Iddy-VD Amin! "This is what my brain looked like before I got VD, this is what it looked like after I got VD!"

By the way Kazakhstan has invited Cohen to visit the country!

Let no one forget that some foreign countries find it humorous to show people wearing rubber masks of Reagan and to dance in the streets at the announcement of the falling of the twin World Trade Center towers. I guess what people find humorous varies widely from nation to nation and people have a right to their own senses of what is funny and what isn't!

And at the World Trade Center real people died. Real people representing EVERY nation of the world died in that one. Yet people laughed and danced over it and that's documented on video tape.

Answer 4

Humour is always based on ridiculing something or pointing out faults, flaws and confusing issues about it. When you do that, you bound to upset a number of people who associate themselves with whatever you are making fun of. Even a harmless kiddy joke makes mockery of something (the rabbit, the goat, the cat the dog etc. only they are not able to voice their annoyance). Also, thanks to Borat, a lot of interest has been shown towards Kazakhstan, which is excellent for their tourism industry as potential visitors may bring in a lot of foreign cash into the country. So I think, nobody here on Yahoo Answers should be insulted in the name of the Kazakhstani people as they are benefiting from this. Just think about it, their country was previously unknown to the vast majority of Americans and Britts.

Answer 5

Borat`s "character" only exposes the racist attitude and Ignorance of the Americans.
He only chose Kazakhstan because its a funny name.
if he was a "character" from Africa it would still be V V V funny.

Answer 6

it is not racist- it is chauvinistic . It is a beginning of genocide against the whole nation...for doing what???
for being friendly to jews and offering them a helping hand when they were sent to concentration camps in Kazakhstan created by Stalin...after the jews were released from the camps they preferred to stay in Kazakhstan to work and live side by side with friendly and nice kazakhs....I went to school where almost 70 percent of my classmates were jews...we have never had a single conflict with jews in my country...(yet??)
if Sasha Baron(??)(he is far from a a nobleman) chose Kazakhstan for showing how the world is antisemitic - he had not done his homework...

Answer 7

I think that his portrayal of borat is clever and funny. it is in no way racist. He did the same to the english, blacks,whites,asians all of the different races there are. He is expressing himself. Have people forgotten he is jewish and another minority in this country. I am american and don't find his rantings on about how stupid americans are offensive at all. Think back to Ali G and how he took the piss out of African culture in this country. people need to be more accepting and not as quick to judge or take offence. Its comedy and that is what is wrong with this country. Too busy leading other peoples lives and not their own.

Answer 8

No it is not Racist because Khazaks are not a race, the fact that White people accurately portraying Black people as racist, is racist, whilst white people accurately protraying white people is not is confused by the claim that Cohen is Jewish, so for a Jew to accurately portray Khazaks as anti semitic, anti Jewish is probably OK.
Not the nine O'clock news lambasted Africans in the "B" side to their chart topping "Chicken Song". "I've never met a nice South African" which includes the lyrics,"They're a load of Ignorant Bastards who smell like Baboons" without any problems, the Race relations people probably failed to realise most South Africans are Black!

Answer 9

Yes. But he is Jewish so he can make a mockery out of everybody. A Kazakhstan comedian presenting the Jews as a religious close minded war mongering bunch of retrogrades will be in jail in most Western countries including US and UK - the main markets of that comedy of comedian.

Answer 10

If you watch the film, you will see that it's not racist against the people from Kazakhstan - it's the Americans that he is making fun of!

Answer 11

You are clearly missing the point entirely. If you understood, you would see that he is making more of a comment on america than Kazakhstan