No Laughing Matter
Dear White Peepul,
I know these are the three most feared words my white readers dread from yours truly because they already know this isn't going to end well.
[Watches some white readers shut their eyes, grit their teeth and clench their sphincters while others argue with one another.
Random White Reader: ALL RIGHT! Which one of you crackers pissed this black bastard off again this time? STOP FUCKING UP! You know damn well he opens the gates of Hell on all of us. YOU KNOW HOW EASILY VIOLENT AND EXCITED THEY ALL GET. JUST STOP IT!!!!!]
*Ahem*
As I was saying.
Dear white peepul.
The following is yet another textbook example of HOW NOT to behave when being called out on racist behavior. So yesterday my girl
amazonziti discussed the dynamics and issues of a racial joke that showed up on her friends page.
The joke in question:
A US Navy cruiser anchored in Mississippi for a week's shore leave. The first evening, the ship's Captain received the following note from the wife of a wealthy plantation owner:
"Dear Captain,
"Thursday will be my daughter Melinda's Debutante Ball. I would like you to send four well-mannered, handsome, unmarried officers in their formal dress uniforms to attend the dance. They should arrive promptly at 8:00 PM prepared for an evening of polite Southern conversation. They should be excellent dancers, as they will be the escorts of lovely refined young ladies. One last point: No Jews please."
Sending a written message by his own yeoman, the captain replied:
"Madam,
"Thank you for your invitation. In order to present the widest possible knowledge base for polite conversation, I am sending four of my best and most prized officers. One is a lieutenant commander, and a graduate of Annapolis with an additional Masters degree from MIT in fluid technologies and ship design. The second is a Lieutenant, one of our helicopter pilots, and a graduate of Northwestern University in Chicago, with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. His Masters Degree and PhD in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering are from Texas Tech University and he is also an astronaut candidate. The third officer is also a lieutenant, with degrees in both computer systems and information technology from SMU and he is awaiting notification on his Doctoral Dissertation from Cal Tech. Finally, the fourth officer, also a lieutenant commander, is our ship's doctor, with an undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and his medical degree is from the University of North Carolina. We are very proud of him, as he is also a senior fellow in Trauma Surgery at Bethesda."
Upon receiving this letter, Melinda's mother was quite excited and looked forward to Thursday with pleasure. Her daughter would be escorted by four handsome naval officers without peer (and the other women in her social circle would be insanely jealous).
At precisely 8:00 PM on Thursday, Melinda's mother heard a polite rap at the door which she opened to find, in full dress uniform, four handsome, smiling Black officers. Her mouth fell open, but pulling herself together, she stammered, "There must be some mistake."
"No, Madam," said the first officer. "Captain Goldberg never makes mistakes."
Now personally (I speak only for me. YMMV) I wasn't offended by the joke in and of itself because I gave it the benefit of the doubt that it was a good-faith effort to call out racism. That being said, I didn't find it funny because I saw the punchline coming a mile away. Probably because I have lived this too many times as a black man where white folks are dumbfounded that I have two college degrees, I'm very articulate and regal, I have no criminal record and I've traveled outside of the country and I'm a published author.
All of that being said, the problem with this joke is that for POCs, particularly blacks, this isn't really funny because this is shit we have to live through day in and day out. For many white folks, when they see accomplished blacks as depicted in the joke, they think they've stepped into an alternate dimension of some weird sci-fi movie while tripping on shrooms. Because for many white folks, they react to blacks being accomplished = punching a kitten, defying the laws of physics, burning a Bible and pissing on the flag. It's just not supposed to happen.
I think the real issue for me is in the fact that too many white folks have the EXACT same mindset as the Mother does in the joke and said mindset is so pervasive in society which is another symptom of the disconnect between white folks and POCs and the disconnect on the reality of the institutional oppression known as racism. We're supposed to laugh at the Mother because she has such a fucked up worldview. The problem is that worldview is still prevalent today.
When Ziti gave a very thorough analysis as to why the joke is immensely problematic (to put it mildly), the OP shows up and decides to whitemansplain in the most condescending manner possible how a joke works (for us simple-minded coloreds), what context is and how he is an academic and quotes a bunch of dead white guys to qualify his superiority and his bullshit. Same academic who in a previous post boldly stated how he didn't read a posted essay but then proceeds to argue with Ziti and friends regardless.
He then whitesplains to us how he's a non-racist and he's not like those white peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepul because he's different and speshul.
And how in the blue hell do you prop yourself up as an academic when you can't be bothered to read a text but will argue over it regardless? Last I checked, isn't reading fundamental or was that just an unfounded rumor?
Yeah, just read the comment thread. Epic fail is epic.
So a few points:
-If you have to give a 2-hour explanation on how a joke works and give hypothetical context to explain why it's funny and not offensive, that in and of itself proves that the joke is problematic as it stands now. Because otherwise it wouldn't require that level of explanation.
-Personally (and I speak only for me here), I don't fault the OP for posting the joke. I get how one could interpret it as a good faith effort to call out racism and I even get where this would lead to a disconnect with a lot of white people. My contention with him, however, is that when POCs take the time to educate his ass on how this is problematic and we offer him insight (so he can be a non-racist white person), he opts to gaslight, whitesplain and quote old dead white men in some inane attempt to qualify his bullshit. And then when he's called on his crap, he cries foul and flounces.
I've said this previously and I'll say it again. This is why I will almost rather deal with clueless but well-meaning white folks who know nothing about anti-oppression or social justice. It may require a little more patience and many more teaching moments but at least you know where they stand. Their motives and efforts are genuine. They know they don't have all the answers and will actually make a good faith attempt to shut the fuck up, listen and learn.
It's the liberal white fauxgressives who suddenly think that the rules don't apply to them and just because they've read a post on why racism is wrong, they've achieved Speshul White Person Status.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't lying when he said that the biggest stumbling block to the Civil Rights movement is the white liberal. This entry was made possible via cross platform post from Livejournal and Dreamwidth.
I know these are the three most feared words my white readers dread from yours truly because they already know this isn't going to end well.
[Watches some white readers shut their eyes, grit their teeth and clench their sphincters while others argue with one another.
Random White Reader: ALL RIGHT! Which one of you crackers pissed this black bastard off again this time? STOP FUCKING UP! You know damn well he opens the gates of Hell on all of us. YOU KNOW HOW EASILY VIOLENT AND EXCITED THEY ALL GET. JUST STOP IT!!!!!]
*Ahem*
As I was saying.
Dear white peepul.
The following is yet another textbook example of HOW NOT to behave when being called out on racist behavior. So yesterday my girl
amazonziti discussed the dynamics and issues of a racial joke that showed up on her friends page.
The joke in question:
A US Navy cruiser anchored in Mississippi for a week's shore leave. The first evening, the ship's Captain received the following note from the wife of a wealthy plantation owner:
"Dear Captain,
"Thursday will be my daughter Melinda's Debutante Ball. I would like you to send four well-mannered, handsome, unmarried officers in their formal dress uniforms to attend the dance. They should arrive promptly at 8:00 PM prepared for an evening of polite Southern conversation. They should be excellent dancers, as they will be the escorts of lovely refined young ladies. One last point: No Jews please."
Sending a written message by his own yeoman, the captain replied:
"Madam,
"Thank you for your invitation. In order to present the widest possible knowledge base for polite conversation, I am sending four of my best and most prized officers. One is a lieutenant commander, and a graduate of Annapolis with an additional Masters degree from MIT in fluid technologies and ship design. The second is a Lieutenant, one of our helicopter pilots, and a graduate of Northwestern University in Chicago, with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. His Masters Degree and PhD in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering are from Texas Tech University and he is also an astronaut candidate. The third officer is also a lieutenant, with degrees in both computer systems and information technology from SMU and he is awaiting notification on his Doctoral Dissertation from Cal Tech. Finally, the fourth officer, also a lieutenant commander, is our ship's doctor, with an undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and his medical degree is from the University of North Carolina. We are very proud of him, as he is also a senior fellow in Trauma Surgery at Bethesda."
Upon receiving this letter, Melinda's mother was quite excited and looked forward to Thursday with pleasure. Her daughter would be escorted by four handsome naval officers without peer (and the other women in her social circle would be insanely jealous).
At precisely 8:00 PM on Thursday, Melinda's mother heard a polite rap at the door which she opened to find, in full dress uniform, four handsome, smiling Black officers. Her mouth fell open, but pulling herself together, she stammered, "There must be some mistake."
"No, Madam," said the first officer. "Captain Goldberg never makes mistakes."
Now personally (I speak only for me. YMMV) I wasn't offended by the joke in and of itself because I gave it the benefit of the doubt that it was a good-faith effort to call out racism. That being said, I didn't find it funny because I saw the punchline coming a mile away. Probably because I have lived this too many times as a black man where white folks are dumbfounded that I have two college degrees, I'm very articulate and regal, I have no criminal record and I've traveled outside of the country and I'm a published author.
All of that being said, the problem with this joke is that for POCs, particularly blacks, this isn't really funny because this is shit we have to live through day in and day out. For many white folks, when they see accomplished blacks as depicted in the joke, they think they've stepped into an alternate dimension of some weird sci-fi movie while tripping on shrooms. Because for many white folks, they react to blacks being accomplished = punching a kitten, defying the laws of physics, burning a Bible and pissing on the flag. It's just not supposed to happen.
I think the real issue for me is in the fact that too many white folks have the EXACT same mindset as the Mother does in the joke and said mindset is so pervasive in society which is another symptom of the disconnect between white folks and POCs and the disconnect on the reality of the institutional oppression known as racism. We're supposed to laugh at the Mother because she has such a fucked up worldview. The problem is that worldview is still prevalent today.
When Ziti gave a very thorough analysis as to why the joke is immensely problematic (to put it mildly), the OP shows up and decides to whitemansplain in the most condescending manner possible how a joke works (for us simple-minded coloreds), what context is and how he is an academic and quotes a bunch of dead white guys to qualify his superiority and his bullshit. Same academic who in a previous post boldly stated how he didn't read a posted essay but then proceeds to argue with Ziti and friends regardless.
He then whitesplains to us how he's a non-racist and he's not like those white peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepul because he's different and speshul.
And how in the blue hell do you prop yourself up as an academic when you can't be bothered to read a text but will argue over it regardless? Last I checked, isn't reading fundamental or was that just an unfounded rumor?
Yeah, just read the comment thread. Epic fail is epic.
So a few points:
-If you have to give a 2-hour explanation on how a joke works and give hypothetical context to explain why it's funny and not offensive, that in and of itself proves that the joke is problematic as it stands now. Because otherwise it wouldn't require that level of explanation.
-Personally (and I speak only for me here), I don't fault the OP for posting the joke. I get how one could interpret it as a good faith effort to call out racism and I even get where this would lead to a disconnect with a lot of white people. My contention with him, however, is that when POCs take the time to educate his ass on how this is problematic and we offer him insight (so he can be a non-racist white person), he opts to gaslight, whitesplain and quote old dead white men in some inane attempt to qualify his bullshit. And then when he's called on his crap, he cries foul and flounces.
I've said this previously and I'll say it again. This is why I will almost rather deal with clueless but well-meaning white folks who know nothing about anti-oppression or social justice. It may require a little more patience and many more teaching moments but at least you know where they stand. Their motives and efforts are genuine. They know they don't have all the answers and will actually make a good faith attempt to shut the fuck up, listen and learn.
It's the liberal white fauxgressives who suddenly think that the rules don't apply to them and just because they've read a post on why racism is wrong, they've achieved Speshul White Person Status.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't lying when he said that the biggest stumbling block to the Civil Rights movement is the white liberal. This entry was made possible via cross platform post from Livejournal and Dreamwidth.