What's Color Got To Do With It

For this post we read the article "Just Joking: Is Racist Humour a Form of Vilification?" I don't want to defend racist jokes, really I don't. But I was struck by the fact that one of the examples: What do you call a group of black people chained to a rock - a good start." is used in many contexts. I've always heard it said with Lawyers in place of black people. But if it's hate speech against black people, is it still hate speech against lawyers? Personally I don't find humor in skin color or ethnicity. So I wouldn't laugh at the example. But I have laughed at the lawyer version. Does that mean I'm vilifying lawyers? I don't think we should kill them but they do seem to make life very tedious.

In a similar vein, I'm polish, 100%. And I think I've heard every Polish joke. But I don't feel threatened by them. Should I? Are people who tell Polish jokes also planning violence against Poles? This may sound ridiculous, especially since there isn't the kind violent history for Poles as for Blacks. But it seems to me that anything "Black" has become the equivalent saying Voldemort out loud. If you're white, you're assumed to have no ethnicity and all the privilege. But that's not how I grew up. I grew up with dumb Pollock jokes and difficult relatives. But somehow that's all funny and acceptable. Personally I don't find any of it funny but I do feel a little annoyed at the insinuation that one joke is a form of hate speech while another set is just laughable. If you tell the joke with malicious intent then it's hateful, and if it's told off hand it's just that. I've heard my fair share of degrading jokes about women and Poles, but I've never felt threatened, just annoyed. Which for a joke is a bad effect.