Is 'racist' humour ever acceptable?

[Over The Hill]

It is a strange world!

We used to tell "Irish" jokes. Simply it was a joke about being a bit thick and Irish was used as shorthand for this. When that fell out of favour the subject just changed to being a "Blonde". Again shorthand for thick but somehow accepted.
Generally we now dont accept a grouping by race or nationality that portrays that group in a bad way.

So what about the 2.30 joke? Well it is simply a play on how a chinese person would say something in English. While it is not aiming to offend, it probably would especially if it were said to a second generation chinese person who spoke perfect english.

It is akin to the sort of black jokes that used to go round relying on accents (I remember one about a statue being confused with "is that you").

However you should not throw the baby out with the bath water.

This is not racist-
"There was a heavy dew on the synagogue steps"

 

[rich p]

It depends as well on how well you know the person. I hate it when strangers tell racist, political jokes or even make statements which assume I agree with their prejudice or persuasion.

 

[dudi]

yeah, i reckon it depends what you think racism is. in my opinion racism is expressing or enacting some form of prejudice to the detrement of the other party.

per example. charly boy calling his mate "sooty" is not racism. it's the guy's nickname, however the whinging twats from the equality beureau reckon it doesnt matter if anyone got offended or insulted, there must be a list of words banned from any form of useage because they're all twats.

twats.

 

[Keith Oates]

Calling someone English could be offensive if it's said in a certain manner and this applies to most nationalities.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Rhythm Thief]

It depends as well on how well you know the person. I hate it when strangers tell racist, political jokes or even make statements which assume I agree with their prejudice or persuasion.

Yes, I agree. I remember being present when some banter involving use of the words "nigger" and "honky" was being exchanged between one black guy and one white guy, who obviously knew each other very well and were happy with it. I would never have joined in with that, as a comparative stranger.

 

[Mr Pig]

As a disabled person, I don't like the term "handicapped" (and most other disabled people don't either). It refers back to when people put their hand to their cap to beg for money.

No offence, but I think that's daft. Just about all of the words we use today have origins that now have little bearing on the meaning of the word. If you hadn't told me where that word came from I would never have known. It's like using terms like 'ably challenged' and crap like that, all it does is draw even more attention to the disability.

 

[Auntie Helen]

Ah, but now you DO know that it refers to begging, do you think you might use 'disabled' instead of 'handicapped' in a relevant sentence? At least when speaking to me, someone who has expressed a preference for the use of the word 'disabled'?

I hasten to add, I'm not really picky - I'm a blonde from Essex and I don't mind people making blonde jokes at all. It's just that the word 'handicapped' harks back to a time when people like that were shut away in institutions or left begging and not considered full and useful members of society.

 

[redcogs]

In answer to the original question - no.

 

[ChrisKH]

I have been partially deaf all my life. More often than not, mostly men, if you mention the fact in a social setting (I'm deaf, can I sit that side otherwise I won't hear a thing) they will always say "Pardon?" or "What did you say?" and think it hilarious. If only they realised it's the 100th + time you've heard it. I don't mind the joke, but please be a bit more original. And funny.

 

[ianrauk]

I am a red head.. ok ginger.. and proud of it.
The amount of abuse I have received over the years, and still do is something to believe. Gingerism? Gingerist? Can it be classed as racist?
Helen mentioned being blonde and Essex jokes, I can assure you, it is nothing compared to what 'Ginger' people get.. When I was at school I turned into a horrible bully because of the simple fact of my hair colour. I was always picked on, with the result that I fought back with anyone who dared mention it finally turning into a bully to keep the jokes and nastiness at bay.
As mentioned by ChrisKH above, you hear the same jokes and barbs from people every day... them oblivious to the fact that we have heard them a 100,000 times before.
It's doesn't bother me, water off a ducks back as they say.

 

[redcogs]

i think carrot tops are ok - Lenin and Churchill were famously red heads.

 

[mr_hippo]

Is 'racist' humour ever acceptable? YES!

 

[postman]

Heard about the sailor with two wooden legs.His house set on fire.Fire brigade saved his house.But he was burnt to the ground.

 

[srw]

I don't like the term "handicapped" (and most other disabled people don't either). It refers back to when people put their hand to their cap to beg for money.

Nice theory, but untrue. It refers back to a game of chance in which forfeits were held in a cap. From there the meaning spread to a handicap race, and from there to people.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/handicapped

I don't like the word myself, by the way, for the reasons you adduce in a later post - it's reminiscent of a time when a "handicap" was seen as a reason to shut someone away.

 

[srw]

I suppose it depends on what company you are keeping at the time. Most of the guys at my work are middle eastern and they love any jokes (no matter how un PC/racist) that include anything to do with the middle east/muslims/jews/black people/Saddam Hussein etc. They particularly like jokes about Kurdish people for some reason. The more un PC the better. If you were to repeat some of these jokes in front of some middle class English person they's probably faint from the un PC'ness of it all.

You don't suppose, do you, that the "middle eastern" guys at your work see Kurds as a second-class race? And that they are, perhaps, a teensy bit racist themselves?