Before I respond to some of you I'm going to give my simple response to the comic. It
could be viewed as racist (this is what matters guys). Let me explain. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, one day there's a news report talking about all the robberies in the past week. It coincidentally happens to be that a lot of puerto ricans were involved (like if it was discussing a puerto rican neighborhood) and someone makes a comment that says something like "it's a bad week to be puerto rican". Now, the person who wrote this could argue they never intended to be racist, but it would easily be considered a racist comment by most.
This cartoon was posted in The New York Post people. Whether or not the person intended it to be a racist statement is irrelevant. Regardless of whether the president wrote the stimulus bill himself, he's a representative of the current administration, not to mention most people are unaware of this detail. Therefore it can be viewed as racism, and because it can be viewed that way, perhaps the newspaper showing it should have thought twice about its content.
In the world today things that we used to considered in a "black and white" sense racist or not are disappearing and are being replaced with a subtle racism that can often be even more destructive. While you and I know that many people are still racist and proud of it, many people would deny this viewpoint. Yet at the same time racism is very prevalent. People often don't notice their own biases.
Suppose the writer did intend for the comic to be racist. Who the hell cares? There are some seriously racist jokes that comedians make all the time. On national television! I don't understand the double standard. Both are meant to be in jest.
Why would we care about the cartoon and not Mind of Mencia?
Expectation my friend. I don't care about all the comedians because we expect racist jokes out of them, and when questioned, they admit fully that their jokes are racist. On the other hand a newspaper is supposed to be objective and furthermore, hold some integrity.
Not only that, most people assume it's not meant to offend people, because they share a view that if your offended, then your insecure, and its all in fun.
For me, I don't mind a few jokes, because all in all racism has declined, and tolerance has increased, it's in this present time, However, hate crimes, now that's the core of racism.
I'm not trying to overreact in the following statement. I want you to think about what I'm saying. I know you're not suggesting that anything below hate crimes that's racist should be tolerated flat out, but wouldn't you agree that in order to reduce the acceptance of radical racism we need to put a stop to the small, subtle, and often ignored racism that we
can put a stop to? I'm not even talking about this cartoon. Think about it.
Race is just an idea. It's a tool used to specify someone from someone else personally. The people who see that comic to target Obama's skin color are the racists them selves. It looks more like a play on "intelligence" than "race" to me. You know... poo flinging monkeys?
When will people realize that we're nearly the same genetically (very very close in percentage, you can hardly pinpoint the differences) and throw this "racism" idea out of the equation? I don't think people need tolerance of other people, but tolerance of them selves. Why should the word "******" or "beaner" or "chink" offend you so much? As long as YOU are offended by these words, they will be offensive words and this race superiority/differences will never die down.
It's hard to explain how I feel about it and my opinions about it since I can't word it right on paper.
I agree with you about something, but I'm going to be a bit more blatant about it:
Race is a social construct. That means it's made up guys. There is absolutely NO genetic link that shows someone's "race". The grouping might as well be arbitrary. I'm going to go on even further in explaining this: statistics show that when we consider race, and factor out other causal links, and look at something like, for example, test scores, we find race is NOT a factor. Asking you for your race is like asking you what your hair color is. If in the end a few more blondes do better in a classroom on one test, than some people would say being blonde makes you smarter. Think about how stupid that sounds? It is the same thing when it comes to race.
But when it comes to why someone is offended that's fairly obvious man. Many people use the word in an offensive manner, so it's understandable people feel they're being offended when it's said. The person who said it could have chosen to offend any trait of said person, but instead they chose to pick on their "race". Have you never been offended by a word?
It does come off as racist to me, but then again, why would I assume that that monkey is Obama when it doesn't even look like him? The actual existence of a raging monkey also makes it look a bit better (what an odd sentence O_o)
Maybe I can brew a little controversy here...
Personally, I think racial jokes reduce actual racist feelings (if that comic were a racist joke, however, I'd have to say it's a bit savage). I really despise these celebrations of "diversity" that school tries to force on me. What? By drawing more attention to racial and cultural differences, they hope to ease tension? But by making a mockery of it and being insensitive to race, you would be contributing to the ultimate downfall of real
racism, a feeling that is generally not outwardly spoken, but felt.
So I would say that diversity is not something to celebrate, but something to accept. Instead celebrate unity. I would also say that race is not something that should be hushed up or given politically correct terms such as "_____-American"; rather, one should acknowledge it in it's fullest and treat as something little different from hair or eye color. I agree with the above: there is one human race. This is pretty idealistic, I know, because some people in this world can't help but to get butt-hurt at something silly.
Guys, and this is something I'm going to repeat to a few people, there was a lot of racism BEFORE we celebrated diversity, had black history month, and were educated about blatant examples of racism throughout history (and the long struggle to fight oppression). So what makes you think their is a causal relationship between celebrating diversity and racism? It's actually the opposite. By constantly reminding ourselves that racism is wrong, and that we should be tolerant of people's cultural differences, we avoid having racist ideas.
Have you ever heard the statement "think before you talk"? Initially, many people make blatantly racial judgments without thinking about it. We are human and we create patterns. Not only that, but we often make up reasons to explain/justify patterns. A black man robs a white woman. The woman has never been robbed before in her entire life. She feels scared when she sees black men walk by her. It's understandable that she makes this
initial connection perhaps, but then after some time has passed, she can tell herself she's educated, and knows this has nothing to do with someone's skin color. Do you agree that without any knowledge about race throughout her life this could easily brew racist feelings?
I never thought I'd actually say this, but I actually kind of agree with you. I think it's healthy to make fun of other social groups, and ourselves every once in a while. Also, when people refer to themselves as say part of "the black community," it creates an image that blacks and whites have different social circles. How does that encourage diversity at all? In fact, I'd say the best way to encourage diversity is to not acknowledge it at all!
Nonetheless, the comic sucks.
Refer to my above comment in response to yours about acknowledging diversity.
I agree that referring to a "black community" or any racial community creates an image of separation, which encourages racism. Still, you say it's healthy to make fun of social groups. Why? It depends on how you define "make fun" I guess. I think that if we decided it's perfectly acceptable to make racist comments, than a consequence is that some people feel it's acceptable to take it a step further. What about pulling pranks? What about "jokingly" forcing the black kid to sit in the back of the bus? It's just "making fun" isn't it? What if it happens every day? Day after day? Things like this happen man, and a lot. I'm not talking about buses necessarily. Restaurants, for example, do this often. If it happens only once in a while, you would say the person is overreacting and needs to be less sensitive. But if it happens just about every time he goes there... do you see my point?
Well yeah, but it still exemplifies my point. We could just focus on Chappelle's Show and it would be the same deal.
It's simply a freedom of speech debate. People should be allowed to mock subtle differences and stereotypes if they **** well want to. Everybody stereotypes. If you say you don't, you're a liar.
However, my advocacy of freedom of speech doesn't make this comic any less stupid. I didn't find it racist; I just found it unfunny. But if it was racist, I couldn't give a ****.
Do you not care because it doesn't affect you negatively? That's the only reason I can imagine. I hate to say it like that man, but it's how it sounds to me. This freedom of speech argument is nonsense. When that speech has negative consequences that threaten OTHERS that overrides the freedom to say it (yelling "fire" in a theater for example would not be allowed).
If you're a well-known newspaper that's supposed to be objective, fair, and is seen by millions, you need to avoid racist remarks. Period. If we tolerate them, then we're tolerating all consequences that arise due to this tolerance. Towards the time of the Holocaust (and it still occurs before and after it) there were a lot of pictures in the newspapers showing Jews in a mocking manner (like with big noses for example). Perhaps if we didn't tolerate newspaper's racial drawings we could have avoided the deaths of millions. Explain to me how this is an incorrect assumption.
As said in the first post the cartoon was just to start discussion
I have a friend from Japan, who said that when he came to America he was surprised that other Asian people didn't speak Japanese, and of the diversity. I think it's common to assume that people are like you, or to just base off what you see. I agree that I never think "i'm white". In fact, when describing a person I'm more likely to mention their skin color if they're not white then if they are. But at the same time, most people where I live are white. I'm more likely to say someone has Blonde or red hair then if they have brunette, because most people where I live have brown hair. I wouldn't call that really racist, just basic nature.
The thing is though, Race doesn't really exist. There is just ethnicity. If I moved to Africa with a community of white people, lived without a lot of modern technologies, and we stayed there for thousands of years, then by the end of it we'd probably be almost indistinguishable from black people. Which isn't really running contrary to anyone's views, but it does help to reconnect people with everyone else. People need to stop seeing themselves as "black/white/ethnicity", or seeing someone else as "oh he's a black/white/ethnicity guy". It's ridiculous.
I agree with you. But we have to be aware that these things occur all too often. Because of that awareness we can try our best to minimize this response by constantly reminding others of how/why it's wrong.
We have to try and see the big picture people. We have to understand the consequences of trying to ignore race. Because you as an individual is not the only person in the United States or in the world. Even if you claim you would never be racist (which obviously for most people is just not true) we all know that many would. Only by understanding and agreeing that it's unethical can we hope to purge as much of it from our society today.
-blazed
. Always the funniest.
