Racist Jokes

After reading the articles “You just don’t get it, Silverman” and “How it went down” I was beyond shocked how this one word, “chink,” could cause so much controversy. The dialogue and conversation in the articles went on and on about whether or not it was an appropriate joke for Silverman to have told, and honestly, at that point, if I were Silverman I would feel like never ever telling another joke again. All of this thanks to one word. I definitely think that part of the reason it was such a huge deal was because Silverman is not Chinese. If she were Chinese I think that the audience and anyone else would not have had such a huge problem wither her saying the word. Because she is white, she does not have the “right” to say that word.

I find this extremely similar to the use of the “N-word.” A long time ago in class, we watched a video clip about a teacher referring to his students in such a fashion, insisting that it was okay because it was not only a different tense of the word, but that it was how all of the students referred to each other. First of all, he shouldn’t have been saying it to students in the first place, but if he weren’t a teacher and if here were black, I don’t think there would have been such great controversy over it. A black person is allowed to say that term, but a white person or any other person of another race does not have the “right” to do so.

It is controversies like these that make me not want to ever say a single word that directly indicates race. Many people get easily offended when it comes to the subject of race, and sometimes I find it best to avoid any mention of race at all.

One thing Silverman said that really made me think was, “Yeah, it is clearly a joke, you know, illuminating racism. It’s not a racist joke. It’s a joke about racism.” First of all, I think that all jokes can be interpreted differently. No matter what the intent, the listener forms their own interpretation, and it is their own personal opinion that decides whether or not they even thought the joke was funny in the first place. Second, I do not quite understand what Silverman means by her use of the words “illuminating racism.” Was she showing that racism is a bad thing? I don’t think so. In her joke she implied that the word “chink” was inappropriate, but yet her quote did not make me learn a lesson about racism. Third, I would like to say that I would like to have her explain the difference between a racist joke and a joke about racism. They may seem like two totally different things to her, but this is because of the way she interprets them. When the public is interpreting her jokes, they form their own beliefs, and don’t always understand the joke the way she sees it. For this reason, I think that people who say racist jokes or “jokes about racism” should be very cautious about what they say about other races.