An African American is the President of the United States. Now, Grow a Sense of Humor!

I am Scottish and Italian. Married to an Asian Indian woman, and we have a 6 year old daughter.

I watch shows, hear jokes, and see stereotypes based on all of our backgrounds, on a daily basis.

I'm sorry, but it is time for African Americans to start getting in on the "fun".

Open your eyes people! Obama is a Black Dude! The country voted him into office. Things have changed. And, some things haven't.

A Thing that changed: Nobody can deny that African-Americans are as respected as any other nationality, as long as the individual is deserving of that respect. This is a sign of change.

A Thing that hasn't changed: Everybody likes a good joke. And, some of those jokes are going to be based on race.
They are doing it in China. They are holding their eyes wide open, portraying "white people", doing their best impression of a warehouse worker from NJ and laughing.
Somewhere, a Native American has used a funny accent, and made fun of a Frenchman.
In Bombay, some kid is making buck-teeth, bowing and pretending he is Japanese, (a la the old Bugs Bunny shows).
And it goes on and on.

So, our President should be able to deal with all the same smack that every other politician and non-politician has to deal with.

He should not be off-limits.

The time for crushing anybody that makes the slightest African-American racial joke has passed.

Grow some thicker skin folks.

Allow me to utilize the universally accepted "Simpsons Racial Humor" model.

If I can laugh while I watch...

...Homer Simpson offer peanuts to Apu's elephant-god Ganesh...
and
...The ONLY Italian characters get names like Fat Tony, Johnny Tightlips, Jimmy the Snitch and Frankie the Squealer, (all members of the Springfield Mafia of course)...
and
...Groundskeeper Willie get to act out EVERY Scottish stereotyped weakness, from alcoholism to a bad temper...

...I think I should be able to laugh at the "Watermelons on the White House lawn" joke without having to worry about getting labeled as a "racist"

It's a shame that people are so uptight these days. There is a LOT of good material out there, and God knows that if more of us could learn to laugh at ourselves, we probably wouldn't be in the situation we are in.

SK

[edit on 27-2-2009 by SumnerKagan]

Good post...

I'm all mixed up as well.

Sometimes I feel like McCain in Vietnamese restaurant here, but it's all good

[edit on 28-2-2009 by 5thElement]

I admire people who can laugh at themselves and not take themselves too seriously. I see it as strength of character.

I'm Australian and have many mates from other countries. Sometimes they make 'skip' jokes (as in skippy the bush kangaroo) which are jokes about Aussies and I piss myself laughing because there's always a little bit of irony or truth in them. Good comedy is always based on observations of gender, age, culture, politics etc and that's what makes it so funny... the element of truth combined with some wit.

IRM

I agree with the Simpson analogy... Excellent post.

As someone else has posted here on ATS regarding thin skinned ...
If they learned to laugh about it they would put Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton out of business completely. They'd have to work at McDonalds or Walmart as greeters ... Now how funny is THAT?

I'm a tiny percent of polish but that doesn't stop my in-laws from attempting a good 'dumb-ass' slam on me... RACISM I tell ya!

Well, I woke up this morning, expecting to see some other-than-positive comments in this thread.
What a shock!
Could it be that most of you agree with my assessment of the situation?

Hell yeah.

Couldn't agree with you any more OP.

Even for those who get offended by such jokes - you are not the only ones. It is natural to sometimes get offended. But still, you don't cry racism or whatever "ism" you want.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - Voltaire.

Good post! I really hope that this can happen. It's about time that we started to move on. Thankfully, the United States is the best place in the world to really pursue this race-blind vision. If we can't be race-blind, then at least let everyone live their lives without any chips on shoulders... no matter what race or gender.

As I said, it's about time we start being more comfortable with this topic. Thanks for the post!!

[edit on 5-3-2009 by Iago18]

I'm a foreigner and not familiar with the US scene.

Can someone give me an example of a funny African American racial joke ?

When you tell an English, Irish or Scots joke it's not because of their race, it's because of some characteristic national stereotype. Obama's a US citizen (natural born or otherwise), shouldn't he be mocked simply for being an American ? Or is that me being too simple ?

I hate when people say ignorant things like that. Like, "Oh we got a black president!"

He just as much white as he is black..

that means we have an oreo cookie for a president then

reply to post by The Lass


In the U.S. anybody that falls under the classification of "Caucasian" is doomed to watch and listen to endless streams of jokes, statements and one-liners about their national origins. At the same time, if Caucasians even THINK about making the same kind of jokes or slurs about "Non-Caucasians", they are immediately labeled as racist, rude, stupid, etc.

Political correctness = mass censorship.

Their is a difference between making a joke about stereotypes on a general level then their is about trying to tie those same things to any one person and have it be said in a derogatory way.

reply to post by SumnerKagan



In my opinion... there are two opposite sides of the spectrum

The extremely rich white conservitve man on the right... and the poor black man on the left.


Theese two people will almost always look down on each other....

recognize I said ALMOST always...


The hatred amongst these two polar opposites is compareable to Jews and Palestinians... And I'm not even trying to be sarcastic when I say that.

is it racism? yes... but keep in mind that classism is just as dominant as racism. Probably more of the decisive factor in 2009 IMO.