Bad Black Jokes.....

Our topic this week is the Ethics of Humor. And what is a more ethical mine field than racial jokes. In the right context I see nothing wrong with mild stereotypical jokes. However among the list of jokes we were to contextualize, this week, someone were full of hate and truly offensive. So I chose I less inflammatory joke because I feel I can say more about the humor in stereotypes rather than the humor of hatred.

What do black people and semen have in common?
-Only one in a million work.

Okay so why is this funny? My grandfather is a great lover of racial humor. Being a semi devout Catholic he might not laugh at this one, due to the sexual overtone. But he's shared more than a few "black" jokes at holidays. In fact my first experience with this kind of joke came from him. Why does he laugh? He was a third shift police officer working the Cabrini Green Projects in Chicago for years. In his experience there was truth to this kind of statement. Sure my father had a couple up-standing African American friends, but my Dad could be a trouble maker too. His friends weren't enough of an example for my grandfather. To him it was a superiority thing. He thought he knew what they were really like, because of what he saw day in and day out. This is an excuse, not a reason. Don't get me wrong, I'm not backing up his racism. But when my father was held up at gun point, it was an African American. Other than the regular drunk drivers, the majority of calls I dispatched, at a Police Department in Missouri, were African American offenders. There is some truth to the stereotype. On the flip side,some of my brother's white friends should be on the Springer Show, if it's even running anymore. There's all kind of trash, white and black, which is why I find that in the right context I can laugh at stereotypes.

I can also imagine this joke being told at one of the parties I routinely attended in high school. I need to clarify, these weren't high school parties. They were parties that high school girls were often invited too. I was dating an older brother of a friend, and he had a condo. He was friends with some of the lowest lowlife in the area. We drank with gang-bangers and ex-cons. One friend in particular was dating an ex-con who liked to play the rival gangs against each other. He had a slew of illegitimate kids and he was black. At the time it seemed his job was running from the cops. After we graduated he called this girl at her college dorm to ask her to come bail him out of jail. He would have laughed at this joke. He would have seen it as a badge of honor. He didn't sell drugs because he had no other way to make money. He loved the thrill, he loved laying around for days on end. Every time he successfully evaded the police, it was a notch on his bedpost. So here's an example of the demographic deriving joy form the slanderous humor.

Later in college I met a guy who would have laughed at this joke, because it wasn't about him. He was African American, came from a modest family, had scholarships but no ghetto friends. And he would have laughed and said something about "those" people. He enjoyed the sex-god stereotypes, but didn't let the others affect him, because he didn't see himself in the same category. It's similar to how I can laugh at the red-neck jokes, because they are about someone else. I'm not saying that this guy represents all African Americans. I'm sure that many would take offense at this joke. I'm simply using examples from my life to show how some people would react. If I had grown up in the projects and pulled myself out I would take offense at this. And I'm sure that there are people like my college friend, who grew up better off but would still take offense, simply because others group by color. Which to me is the most ignorant of all. Maybe because I've seen and known all kinds of African American people I have a different view. And that's the slice I wanted to share.

I wonder what my brother-in-law's reaction would be. He tends to laugh at black jokes and then shake his head and say something like: That's cold man. Maybe he laughs to diffuse the tension of being the only black guy in our family. But I have seen him joke with his fiends and he acts the same way. He's a sweetheart. He's stable and puts up with more than his fair share with my sister. And he always has a smile. So where does he fall in this spectrum? Maybe that's the problem it is a spectrum and unless you really know someone you have to careful about your jokes. The article we read about Bob Knight brings this to light. There was private joking, but the public perception of it was off. No one say the picture of Knight teasing the white player. and no one say "footage" from the practice, only the one photo. And isolated it probably looked pretty bad, but in it's full context it was funny to all concerned. And that's my point here. Some racial jokes are full of venom and simply spiteful. But some poke fun at stereotypes, and are all in jest at the time. But you need to be part of that time to be able to make that decision.