Quote Originally Posted by Dizaster View Post
To me and to a lot of people for a long time, Rasicm meant discrimination against, or deliberately offending someone based on the color of their skin or where the originated...

Now a joke can't even be told without someone being offended...

I get why people GET offended.. Because they have deep seated beliefs and values which is like a box with a round whole, and comedy based on colour is a square block that just won't fit into it....

As long as someone out there believes that there is no such thing as a joke about skin color, only offensive intentions, then someone will get offended...

I personally feel it's about intention, and about who it's intended for...

If my mum died of cancer and someone knowing that, told a joke about cancer in front of me.. Regardless of intentions, that joke would be entirely wrong to tell.... Because they should know it's a raw subject with me..

If my mum died of cancer but they DIDN'T know, then it would then depend on their intentions.. If they intended it to be rude towards cancer people, then they are in the wrong.. If they just intended it to be light hearted and inoffensive, then I would feel it's okay for them to do that because they did not know I had a personal issue with this...


That tv skit, they were people who did NOT have bad intentions with it.. And their intended audience was people who they would have honestly felt would understand their intentions and also not let it hit a raw nerve in them...
OF COURSE there probably isn't a joke in the world that won't offend at least someone! But in the end you just HAVE to look at someone's intentions and that's gotta be it... If Chris Rock is cracking jokes about white folk in good spirit, then no one should be offended.. If he actually hates whites people, and is cracking jokes to encourage more divide and for others to dislike white people, then he should be considered to be acting poorly...


I'm able to look at the bigger picture though in regards to these things.. I've had people say horrible things to be in a good natured way and that's how I will take them.. Then I have had people say mundane things to me, but they meant them maliciously and I took offence...
If that is not the key to how you judge something, then you're going to find it difficult to judge anything, because it means your judging it by a bunch of socially programmed rules and values, and not your internal value of whether you feel someone is decent or not...

You may say those people were a bit thoughtless to not consider that there will be people out there who will be offended, but every comedian on earth probably has 90% of their routine which would offend someone...

Half will consider it fine, half will say it tips the line.... But are they judging it because of what we've socially learnt to be wrong or racist, or judging based on how we judge everything else. Through our own personal value of what is good or bad..


I don't care who it is or what the subject matter is..

If someone does something with fair intentions, fully believing their audience will take it the same light hearted way that they mean it, then i'm always going to cut them some slack......
IF there was one person hiding up the back who personally took offense though, that wouldn't make me change my opinion of the original performance..
Fucking great post, as a world we are going down a slippery slope where genuine free thought process is replaced by flawed logic based on some false black/white, no grey area allowed, algorithm. It started in the so called justice systems where only the facts are considered (which does make sens as it would make it even more biased towrdas good liars otherwise), and it's now seeping into all walks of life where people are'nt trusted to be competent and are reduced to box ticking when doing there jobs.