jokes and race

i'm not sure if i've ever met anybody with absolutely no sense of humor whatsoever, so it seems safe to assume that everybody thinks something is funny. i think it's also fairly common that the things we find funny may not be to others. sometimes our humor actually appalls and offends others. i can't say that i'm really a fan of the whole political correctness thing, i tend to feel it often only serves as a mask to hide how we truly feel about a particular subject rather than helping us change the underlying reasons (usually ignorance) for holding socially unacceptable views. at the same time, i do think there are certain bounds of propriety that we can consider when we share our humor with those around us.

i saw an interesting discussion regarding a joke on facebook today about swine flu. a friend of mine had been in an argument with another friend about whether or not the joke is racist. here's the joke:

"They once said a black man would be president when pigs fly. His first 100 days...........and *BAM* swine flu."

most of the comments seemed to suggest that people didn't see any connection between the joke and race in the first place, and that it certainly wasn't racist, but hilarious of course. i can't safely say that all of the comments came from a particular persuasion without further research, but i'm not convinced it necessarily matters for our purposes. what struck me most about the responses i was reading was how easily the posters had laughed at the joke, and taken for granted the fundamental assumptions that allow it to be funny in the first place.

if anybody is wondering if there is any connection between the joke and race the answer is yes. in fact, if you know nothing about the history of race relations in the united states this joke becomes meaningless. in order to get the punchline, that we now have a black president and all of a sudden swine flu (playing on the past tense of the verb fly i.e. flew - which i'm not adding because i think you aren't capable of figuring that out on your own, but i just realized that myself after reading the joke like 5 times, joint learning process - remember)

okay timeout. that's probably unorthodox for writing, but that sentence just got way to long to stay coherent.

moving on, to get the punchline we have to know that by saying that "a black man would be president when pigs fly" we mean that it's extremely unlikely for this to ever happen. why is it extremely unlikely? because in this country we have a history of persistent and deep rooted discrimination against people of African descent, one so intense as to generate the worst known tradition of chattel slavery and a constitutional statement that defined black people as being less than human.

when we say that a black man will be president when pigs fly, it's because we don't expect it to happen in light of this shameful heritage. at the same time, while we cannot make sense of the joke without knowing something of our past, it is a story so familiar to us that we recognize the premise of the joke without realizing we've just considered the dynamics of race in our country. perhaps this is one of the lingering manifestations of how deeply racism affects us still today. and how much more insidious that very often we don't even see it working in our lives.

i must say that in spite of the compassion i feel for people who have suffered injustice and oppression, i am also inclined to encourage those who feel like victims to become empowered souls who use the faculties available to them to help themselves and others. this does not mean that those responsible for the oppressive circumstances are absolved of any duty to rectify the injustice they have caused, and themselves contribute to the empowerment of those they formerly tyrannized. it means that i believe that everybody has an active part to play in the process of healing, no one side has the right to sit around and wait for some expected progress to be made by the other.

indeed the concept of different sides is a crippling outlook itself. we truly need to stop regarding ourselves as a divided community, some white and some black, some hispanic, asian, native, or otherwise. we must increasingly come to regard ourselves as a unified whole, one human race, and the injury of one is the injury of all, the happiness of one the joy of all.

while it appears we've diverged from the original theme of race and humor, i've made these other claims to provide a context for my next statement. part of the healing process for people of African descent will include a willingness to give our brothers and sisters of European descent the benefit of the doubt, even if we feel certain that some statement reveals some veiled racial prejudice. also part of this process will be for our brothers and sisters of European descent to leave behind the trend to think that with the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, and the global conquest of hip-hop music and culture, that racism is dead, and that anybody who thinks they've experienced it is just confused.

while no one can rightly accuse many of you of enslaving or discriminating against people of color, it does not diminish the fact that the oppression of the past has afforded members of the majority advantages which are often taken for granted (some of you may be familiar with the term white privilege). therefore, it is necessary to educate ourselves about how this advantage is played out in our daily lives and in so doing gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of our society and increase our capacity for compassion, and strengthen bonds of true love, embracing the diverse backgrounds of our neighbors, friends, co-workers, and families.

i never intended that i'd be writing this long of a post ever, but i tried to be as clear as possible without leaving much ambiguity. i'd be lying if i said i didn't think some of these themes may come up again in time, but hopefully we can keep things fairly light. i figure there are enough things in the world that can burden a soul, i'd rather help sweeten life. so i'll leave you with the following quotation from the Baha'i Writings:

"That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. . . It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens."