If I don't belong to the race that the racism is aimed at, by definition I am taking offence on someone else's behalf.
That assumes that racism doesn't affect you because you're not of the race being discussed. Inevitably it does though, as we all have to live in the same society.. and ultimately, the same planet - which gets smaller every decade.
Racism isn't about your personal opinions... it's not even about who is to blame.. we're all to blame. Black people are just as racist as white people... Ignorance is what unites racist people and this stupid obsession with defining difference. No one has names for white people with blue eyes and brown eyes... however, we are disparaging against ginger hair. Why? Because you can't decide which is the odd one out with eyes, that's why.. there are just as many of each. That sounds trivial, but it's probably not to a kid with ginger hair being bullied at school, for no other reason than being different. Children are TAUGHT this behaviour.. it's not natural.
So long as race is an issue, there will be racism. And pretending that making jokes about race IS not making an issue is just [PLEASE DON'T TRY TO BYPASS THE SWEAR FILTER]. If there was no issue of race, then such jokes wouldn't even have a context in which to operate, and therefore wouldn't even be recognised as such.
I'm not suggesting we refuse to even acknowledge the colour of someone's skin either before some smart arse suggests that's what I'm saying. If I had to describe a black man to the police, I'd say he was black. I'd be doing it in the same way that I'd be saying to the police, "It was a red car that caused the accident". My Dad once said during the Olympics many years ago that black people are better at Javelin because their joints are different, and thats' because they evolved to throw spears. I sh*t you not. My Dad's a clever man, but he was merely regurgitating what he'd been told as a child, and no one had challenged him, and he's essentially uneducated, so he saw no harm in the comment. No.. the world didn't stop, and no one died, but really.... why perpetuate the myths surrounding race? And it DOES effect people outside of the race being disparaged. How ****ing sick and tired do you think I am of people assuming that my wife is passive in bed and making drunken jokes about it when their p1ssed about how "they" will do anything asked of them because that's how Asian women are portrayed in Movies/TV/Porn How sick and fed up am I of people talking to ME about her when she's f***ing well stood right next to me because they assume she's "foreign". I never got this when living in London... but when I moved up North, I get this relatively often. Why is THAT? Because where I live in Lancashire is just not even remotely cosmopolitan, and most people just don't really have ideas about other races other than what they're told, therefore either distrust them, or concentrate on the differences. Why does my wife get so much hassle if she goes out clubbing with friends? The white women she's with don't, but she gets blatant sexual abuse because of the myths of Asian female sexuality perpetuated by idiots. She daren't go out clubbing any more. Is that fair? Is that harmless?
I've been the victim of casual racism too. I spent a lot of time in Japan between '97 and '00, and am often in Singapore, and when visiting people, I'M on the receiving end of "What shall I give him for dinner?... does he eat Chinese food?.. can he use chopsticks? It's annoying when I go out to dinner with my in-laws, and have a knife and fork put in front of me when everyone else was given chopsticks and a spoon. No.. it's not the end of the world, but it IS annoying. It never happened in Tokyo or Yokohama BTW... and rarely in Singapore, but once out of the cities you get it. Being called Gaijin etc. "Oh.. you mean the Gaijin sat over there in the corner?" like I wasn't there.... because of course.. white people don't speak Japanese, do they? The more parochial or rural the settings, the greater the ignorance. People in Japan would argue that "Gaijin" is not racist... and that THEY are not being racist when they use it... but why use it at all? Why not just say "Oh, you mean the man sat over there in the corner wearing blue?" I'd would be just as clear who they meant without identifying me as a foreigner. In a different context, I had friends who called me Gaijin in ways that was not even remotely offensive. One only acknowledged the difference, the other was ironically used by friends to ridicule the stupidity of making such distinctions. It's not the WORD... they're just letters... it's the intent and implications that matter.
I've had fathers forbid their daughters to see me because I was western and all western men want only one thing from Japanese girls...... Arrrrgh!"
Just stop arsing around, and let's just get in with living on the same ****ing planet instead of concentrating on differences. White, black, hispanic.... ALL have ignorant racist people, and racism, no matter how harmless is a product of ignorance.. nothing more. If you are racist, you are ignorant. Simple as that.
There are issues here that are not as harmless as people would choose to believe they are. They only choose to believe that they are harmless because to acknowledge that they need to change their behaviour is to admit they are wrong. They also see it as a threat to their "way of life".
If you disagree with any of this, then effectively you're saying that you LIKE the way things are now, where making the odd joke about someone because they are different in ways they have no choice in is just fine. Making a joke about Bankers, or Bishops... fine.. that's just a job, and ultimately, it's a choice someone makes but to make jokes about fat people, or disabled people, or black people - it's just wrong to make jokes about ANY difference when the only thing you're projecting as funny is that fact alone. That's not to say you can't include race in humour... so long as it;s well observed, in context, and isn't necessarily negative. All the wheelchair gags that Peter Kay did for the BBC trailers were hilarious, but at no point would a disabled person find them offensive. There's a subtle difference between offence and observation. One concentrates on the ways in which someone is "other" to them... one just makes light of something that's naturally funny. Being fat, black, gay, disabled by
itself is not funny. There are many ways in which we can observe humour in being fat, gay, black or disabled though.... invariably, calling them names is NOT the way to do it. That's just neither clever, or funny. It's just sad.
Just as Pete said further up the thread. He can use nigger around black friends... but because there will be a personal bond that allows such language use, and at no point would the word be used to threaten, alienate, differentiate or otherwise segregate.
Just my musings on the matter. Carry on.
