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From: mcglk@blake.acs.washington.edu (Ken McGlothlen)
Newsgroups: news.misc,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Racist jokes
Message-ID: <251@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 21 Nov 88 22:57:38 GMT
References: <8030@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <1058@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1223@fig.bbn.com> <179@loci.UUCP> <2361@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: mcglk@blake.acs.washington.edu (Ken McGlothlen)
Organization: Me?  Organized?
Lines: 56

I tried responding to Mr Richmond's concerns in soc.culture.jewish, and
fervently hoped it would not go any farther.  Sadly, it has.

First, some background.  The original joke that Mr Richmond took offense
at involved a Scot and a Jew, playing on stereotypes of each.  I have a
rather strong Scot heritage (McGlothlen--sounds Russian, no?), *plus* a
rather strong Jewish heritage from my great-grandmother's side.  I am
*well* aware of the historical difficulties that both groups have gone
through in the past.  The Scots haven't had a particularly easy time of
it.  The Jews have had a significantly worse time of it.

I didn't find the joke extremely funny.  I thought it was okay.  That's
all.  At least I didn't fly off the handle and see it as a racial attack.
I'm a thinking human being--I know the stereotypes, and know that they
don't necessarily hold.  I'm not stingy, as the classic stereotypes of
Scots go; nor am I a ruthless businessman, or rich, or necessarily
pompous, as the stereotypes of Jews go.

Fact is, most humor--if not all of it--plays on misfortune of some kind,
with the exception of puns (even here, it can be argued that puns play
on misfortune--primarily of the listener).  There's nothing wrong with
being able to laugh at stereotypes, or history, or presidents, or whoever.
Just because it was *your* group that got slammed (in a rather trivial
way, in this case) doesn't mean that you need to (a) make a major havoc
on USENET over this; (b) implicitly threaten action against the moderator
of rec.humor.funny by going through his employers; and (c) scream about
racist attacks over something this minor.  It looks especially strange
considering that ethnic humor has gone on rec.humor.funny for rather a
long time before you noticed that your group came under fire once.

I've learned to laugh about various things about me.  I think epileptic
jokes are humorous.  Don't sweat it:  I'm an epileptic.  I *collect*
epileptic jokes.  Sure, I could whine about it.  Wah, epileptics spent
centuries being accused of devil-possession.  We were stoned, confined
in asylums, burned at the stake, misunderstood, kept from leading normal
lives throughout history.  Wah, we've been persecuted for thousands and
thousands of years.  Oh, c'mon.

Wah, Scots have had a rough time at English hands.  Don't pick on us,
we've been persecuted.

Wah.

This kind of hypersensitivity bodes no good, for USENET, *or* for
rec.humor.funny.  If you're this sensitive about it, then why are
you even *reading* rec.humor.funny?

In any case, I hardly think this qualifies Brad Templeton as a "racist."
Sure, the word showed up in the Keywords line; this was probably a
mistake--he *should* have put "ethnic."  Regrettable, but it happened.
Cope.  In the meantime, it's hardly a direct attack on the Jewish
nation, history, or religion--and I believe you owe Brad an apology
for the implication that he *is* racially prejudiced.

				--Ken McGlothlen
				  mcglk@blake.acs.washington.edu