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Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 3257
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 04:20 pm: | 
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`Race is the new sex' in today's pop culture
Sep. 30, 2006. 01:00 AM
MARGO VARADI
Pop culture today pushes the envelope of race and ethnicity to a degree that would make Archie Bunker blush. And teenagers are loving it.
African American comedian David Chappelle satirizes black culture, while Jewish comic Sacha Baron Cohen's character Borat sings a song about throwing Jews down a well. Even Survivor is divided along racial lines and one of the Asian team members tries to be entertaining by making jokes about his ethnicity.
"Race is the new sex," says Ryan Hearst, 19, from Etobicoke. "A few years ago, talking about masturbation and sex was shocking to people. Now, they've all gotten used to it."
The irony is that this generation of multicultural youth, raised on inclusiveness and integration, is mocking these conventions.
"We, as a society, seem to tiptoe around anything that could be taken as racist," Ryan says. "We're afraid to offend everyone, so these comedians use that to their advantage."
Ryan says he and his friends will often make racist jokes towards one another. "A black friend of mine will take my keys or something and poke fun at himself for stealing," Ryan says.
His Asian roommate is also fair game. "If penis talk comes up, we might bring up the stereotype that Asians have smaller penises than whites and poke fun at him or something."
Laughing at each other just shows how close and comfortable they all are, Ryan says.
"We couldn't go to people we don't know and make those kind of jokes, because who knows how people will react? There always has to be lines. Without lines and rules, there's chaos."
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`Right now, Borat is the big funny....It's comedic genius, that's what it is'
Chime Lazerna, 17, from Mississauga
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Teens want humour that pushes those lines, as is the case with Borat, a character Cohen plays on Da Ali G Show. As a fictitious reporter from Kazakhstan, Borat uncovers the prejudices of real people.
"Right now, Borat is the big funny," says Chime Lazerna, 17, from Mississauga. "His humour is to unmask everything about society, like racism. It's comedic genius, that's what it is."
Briana Milman, 17, from the area of University Ave. and Dundas St., thinks being able to laugh at yourself and others is liberating. "I love non-politically-correct humour," she says. "PC gets so tired after awhile. You can really expand your boundaries by going beyond."
Laughter is often more effective than taking a more serious moral high ground. "Dave Chappelle makes fun of blacks to bring attention to (racism)," Brianna says.
But her roommate Desmond Mok, 18, an Asian student, rejects racist humour.
"It seems like creativity has nothing to do with humour anymore but they've got to pick on one group of people and make fun of them in the most idiotic fashion possible."
Desmond doesn't like Borat or the message he sends implying that immigrants are ignorant. "I find it offensive because I'm also a foreign student or a foreign being," he says. "It's just, like, `Oh, they're making fun of foreign people — those assholes.'"
Radu Palivan, 18, from East York, believes that humour targeting ethnic groups has become a problem.
He talks of websites where you can look up jokes according to ethnicity. "Youth are becoming more racist," he says. "Now that you have groups of kids who are racist, others want to feel accepted, so they try to blend in by acquiring these negative traits."
He believes that someone who tells a racist joke betrays how they really feel. "The only reason someone would say a joke is if they think it is funny. And if it's a racial joke, then they support the joke and don't think that the joke is a bad thing."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_T ype1&c=Article&cid=1159393811167&call_pageid=991479973472&col=991929131147 |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6486
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 04:55 pm: |
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I don't believe telling race-based jokes is necessarily racist. It think only become racist when such is grossly one-sided and one group is much more harmed by such than another. |
Igbogirl
Regular Poster
Username: Igbogirl
Post Number: 361
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 05:08 pm: |
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smyc |
Racialrealist
First Time Poster
Username: Racialrealist
Post Number: 3
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 01, 2006 - 04:10 pm: |
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"We, as a society, seem to tiptoe around anything that could be taken as racist,"
Yeah, I think race is the last taboo, particularly with the promotion of colorblind ideology - it makes it harder for black people to label certain acts as racist which means that they are even more vulnerable. |
Unpolitical
First Time Poster
Username: Unpolitical
Post Number: 3
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 03:40 pm: |
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This is yet another attempt by the White Supremists to make us forget about the attrocities they committed to black people that attributed to us being in the position we are in. By no means is it funny to make fun of the severely damaged relationship between black men and black women nor should we be tickled at the way we speak and write the English language when a vast majority of us don't even know much less can't even speak our original tongue. It's all a big set up. The minute you see Hispanics, Jews and Asians making light of their stereotypical shortcomings, it be the "niggers" turn next. How can one laugh at others and not themselves? This is the set up question to make blacks feel guilty and join in with the "fun". If the black comedian adds to this disgusting process than he or she is nothing more than a mintrel serving the causes of the White Supremist. Black people, until we have our own and are living outside of a White Supremist world though we may laugh shit still ain't funny... |
Nolanfane
Regular Poster
Username: Nolanfane
Post Number: 99
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 03:53 pm: |
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Damn Unpolitical you came hard and you came correct.
I give you props on that.
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Mony
Newbie Poster
Username: Mony
Post Number: 35
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 07:14 pm: |
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I agree wholeheartedly with both racialrealist and unpolitical. Kudos for your remarks. subtle racism is much more dangerous than blatant racism in the longrun. At least with a out and out racist, you know what you're up against and can act accordingly. With the subtle, can't you take a joke type of humour, the racism you encounter is harder to define. Once you start allowing for such jokes to be harmless in order to be percieved as a member of a colourblind society, you are indeed opening up the group for further discrimination down the road. After all, these racial jokes are based on stereotypes. In order to make them, one has to be conversant with them. In order to laugh at them, one has to be aware of the stereotypes that are at the base of these jokes. You must ask yourself, who in their right mind is going to laugh at jokes which are based upon ignorant and racial stereotypes? Espeacily with the history of violence and death behind them? If that is not a barometer of selfhatred than what is? |
Racialrealist
First Time Poster
Username: Racialrealist
Post Number: 10
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 07:32 pm: |
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I agree wholeheartedly with both racialrealist and unpolitical. Kudos for your remarks.
Thanks!
...subtle racism is much more dangerous than blatant racism in the longrun. At least with a out and out racist, you know what you're up against and can act accordingly. With the subtle, can't you take a joke type of humour, the racism you encounter is harder to define.
I agree. As I make clear on my blog, I consider colorblind ideology to be one of the most oppressive, suffocating, sneaky aspects of modern racism, which is used not only by whites, but by blacks in the form of black-on-black racism whereby blacks attack fellow blacks in order to get rewarded by the white supremacist system.
See following posts:
http://racialrealist.wordpress.com/2006/07/08/colorblind-ideology-repost/
http://racialrealist.wordpress.com/2006/07/03/colorblind-ideology-and-dishonesty -about-racism/
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Mony
Newbie Poster
Username: Mony
Post Number: 38
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 08:24 pm: |
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Racialrealist, the whole notion of colourblindness is nonsense. The colour blindness ideology is just another form of racism. By not awknowledging someone's race or ethnicity, you are indeed refusing to ackowledge them as a person. Afterall, isn't this a part of who we are? It is a part of our totality as a person. This ideology is also an attempt to quell dissent among 'minorities' in the white supremist culture. It renders the people of colour invisable. Could you imagine for instance that you wish to marry and procreate saying that you'll marry anyone because you don't see gender. This is a simplistic example to be sure, but this is a complex, multilayered issue. By the way, I have read your blog before, and I enjoyed it immensley. I will surely read the links you have provided me with. Regards! |
Racialrealist
Newbie Poster
Username: Racialrealist
Post Number: 11
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 12:09 am: |
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The colour blindness ideology is just another form of racism
Absolutely.
Another related concept actually is "colorblind racism" - it's a term that's been used more and more over the last few years to conceptualize modern racism.
I don't know if the following book is any good as I haven't read it - but it sounds interesting:
"Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States" by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
http://www.amazon.com/Racism-without-Racists-Color-Blind-Persistence/dp/07425163 34
By the way, I have read your blog before, and I enjoyed it immensley. I will surely read the links you have provided me with. Regards!
Thanks again - feel free to comment sometime  |
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