Do you think that those innocent, slightly racist jokes that people whisper at the water cooler are harmless,?

Question

or are they the root of a deeper problem.

Answer 1

If people tell "slightly racist" jokes, are they "slightly racist"? Is the sky "slightly blue", or the sun "slightly bright"? Condemnation of such people should not be whispered. There should be no place for any type of racism, in modern society. .

Answer 2

Slippery slope. At some point, a joke about a certain ethnicity becomes racist, but when? Or perhaps you believe that all jokes concerning race are harmful and should not be told. As a white male, hearing some jokes about the stereotypical white guy are funny. (Mocking how a 'white guy' dances, etc.). I think that this has a lot to do with taste. Otherwise, lets just ban 'racist' books which depict any race in a less than desirable fashion, and outlaw 'racist' jokes. Any extreme is undesirable, and not everything that contains a racial remark is racist.

Answer 3

They are not the root of the problem but no racist joke is harmless or innocent. They are a symptom of the problem. I personally will stop that type of stupidity when I am present. What amuses me, is that after I stop someone from spewing hatred about people they don't know, I immediately become the target of the conversation. Racists dislike me as much or more than the people they seek to demean.

I hear discussions about racism and how bad it is from the news media (where 99% of the suspects featured are minority), religious persons (one of the most racially divided areas - very little mixing of races in any of our local churches) and others, but I have never met or seen anyone else refuse to tolerate racist behavior - regardless of their race.

I believe a lot of this comes from the practice of teaching toleration rather than acceptance.

Answer 4

I think it's a good idea to have a sense of humor about things, because life will get tedious awfully quickly if we don't.

"Harmless" is a tricky word. Probably, most good jokes would offend *someone* if you look hard enough. But if you're asking whether racist jokes mean that the joke-tellers, or the people who laugh at them, are racists? Or if racist jokes are making racism stronger, somehow?

Nah. I don't think so. I had a friend in choir who used to tell all sorts of "soprano jokes" like other people would make jokes about blondes and Poles. I don't think those jokes encouraged any "soprano hatred" in me or anyone else, you know?

Answer 5

There have been times in my life when I've worked with someone for two or three years and then discovered in one fell swoop, from a joke in poor taste or an unguarded moment, that they are a complete racist. I don't know which is worse, the moron that trumpets his racist sludge, or the one who hides it behind political correctness and careful silence. Either way I never fail to be completely disgusted by the ignorance and hatred of racism.

Answer 6

They're not harmless. There's an old guy I work with who says this kind of stuff - today, he was joking around about the "monkeys fighting at the zoo" when he was referring to the Knicks-Nuggets brawl last weekend. Anyway, he's joking, but he's also racist. And racism is never harmless.

It's very strange. As a white guy, these types of people feel comfortable saying these kinds of things to me, almost like they assume that since I'm heterosexual white guy, I also don't like blacks/hispanics/gays etc. But it's hideous, and I hope someday their racism dies with them.

Answer 7

False question. If a joke is racist how is it innocent? Is a joke racist or is how a person interprets it the true problem? The problem may lie with listeners' racial intolerance.

Answer 8

They are not harmless at all. When I hear someone start one I walk away or mention that I don't listen to racist jokes.

Answer 9

They can be. Sometimes, it is fun to laugh at yourself. I find stereotypical jokes extremely funny. I love to hear people from other countries joke about Americans (and I'm an American ie Borat or Team America). When it gets uncomfortable is when people genuinely believe the stereotype. But in a crowd that knows the difference--great fun.

Answer 10

Jokes don't prevent anyone from fulfilling their life's goals.

I think that the reason that they are potentially offensive is because the hearer of the joke will attribute to the jokester some kind of goal of keeping people down. That is, others will think that the person telling the joke will engage in some kind of workplace discrimination.

And the truth is, you need to keep your eyes open for that -- discrimination. But the joke itself is not the problem. It is only circumstantial evidence of a potential problem.