>
> So, the question for the list is : Can a Jewish comedian use the term
> "chinks" in a joke about racism that is not in itself racist?
>
i would venture that the objection of a chinese person might be that the use of the term in the manner above (the silverman joke) is patronizing (for example: i am indian. i have at times heard someone saying "you indians are smart" supposedly in an attempt to show their open-mindedness, but i find such expression patronizing and wrong, and thats not just because its false with respect to me ;-)). further, if the term (chink) itself is objectionable, then it doesnt help that one is saying "i love chinks".
now of course there might be subtle satire here - that by using the term in this manner the comedian (comedienne?) is ridiculing those who use the term in a racist sense (and here i include your point about lenny bruce), but one cannot fault the sensitivity of an oppressed group that has suffered the term as an insult, in failing to discern such subtleties.
slightly long winded aside:
jonah blank wrote a book a while ago called "the arrow of the blue skinned god", a modern rendition of indian epic story "ramayana" presented as a sort of travel journal of the author's attempt to retrace the path of the prince rama through india. blank makes some interesting points in the book about racism and the use of racist terms, in particular w.r.t the term "vanar" - the inhabitants of the southern part of india, are depicted as monkeys (vanar being the sanskrit word for monkey), and the term, he suggests, is derived from "anarya" (or "non-aryan" - the people of the north and brahmins are considered to be aryans). in this can be seen a racist attempt to ridicule the people of the south, equating them to monkeys.
blank points out that the dravidians however steal the insult by adopting ridicule and converting it to a matter of pride (for instance through the special status given to ravana, the demon king of the south - sri lanka - whom rama defeated in war). man is after all, merely an ape with an attitude, as blank points out. he equates this to the adoption of the term "n-word" by black rap artists for instance in lyrics such as "not a chitlin eatin n-word from down south, but a n-word who will smack that taste from your mouth" (ice t?).
my own personal response in all such cases would be that if you are desirous of helping fight the oppression of particular groups, then you should take the cue from these groups in how such a fight should be carried out (i admit there are difficulties in ascertaining the wishes of a "group").
--ravi
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- man is said to be a rational animal. i do not know why he has not been defined as an affective or feeling animal. more often i have seen a cat reason than laugh or weep. perhaps it weeps or laughs inwardly - but then perhaps, also inwardly, the crab resolves equations of the 2nd degree. -- alasdair macintyre.