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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!mhuxm!pyuxi!u1100a!sdo
From: sdo@u1100a.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: Re: BLKTRN
Message-ID: <382@u1100a.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Oct-83 09:36:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: u1100a.382
Posted: Wed Oct 26 09:36:27 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Oct-83 05:38:31 EDT
References: hp-pcd.2135
Lines: 28

This is a comment on the racist humor posted here recently.

A lot of us read net.jokes immediately before, or right after work.
We sometimes cut our lunch hours short to read it.  (Never during
work hours.)

The point is - due to the lack of minorities in our industry,
there is usually no convenient reference point by which we can judge
the comments in a racist joke.  If there is a joke about a white
male, I can look around me and see the exaggerations and falsehoods
present in the joke.  I can make no such comparison when the joke is
about black people.  Fortunately I grew up in an integrated area of
the country, and I can make an intelligent assessment of the contents
of a joke.  This may not apply to many people raised in white areas,
sent to white schools, and working with white people.

It may not matter to most, but many of these people have the power
to hire or reject applicants for a job.  What are they going to
think when they read a racist article and then interview a black
person (all this applies to women, Asians, Hispanics, disabled people,
and any other group which is not properly represented in the workplace)?
What are they going to think when they interview someone who posted
a racist joke that week?  I hope they can make the right choice.

			Scott Orshan
			Bell Labs Piscataway
			201-981-3064
			{pyuxi,ihnp4}!u1100a!sdo