Racist Comedy?

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Dennis wrote:
>
>>>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").
>>
>>Does this mean submitting one's material to a political or ethnic group and
>>allowing them to "correct" what they deem racist or insensitive? That's what
>>Guy Aoki suggested last night to Silverman. He began to lecture her on the
>>role of "proper" satire, and Silverman, who is a professional comic, rightly
>>objected. "You're telling me how to do satire?" she asked of a guy who
>>didn't show one ounce of humor in his bones.
>
>i dont want to argue for aoki, whom i have no knowledge of, but the
>right response would be to say "i am not telling you how to do
>satire. i am telling you how to talk about chinese americans. if
>you cannot do satire without referring to chinese americans using
>words that are offensive to them, then you should reconsider whether
>your satire is worth the harm, especially if you wish to help
>chinese americans".
>
>again, the reasoning against this response might be that such usage
>and satire is intended exactly to parody and delegitimize the
>racism of those who do use the term in a serious racist sense. but
>the problem with such reasoning is that you then make an implicit
>claim that you know what is best for chinese americans and solving
>their problems than they do, or so it seems to me.
>
>all "you"s above are hypothetical, of course.
>
>	--ravi

The choice of the word "chinks" was a politically safe one for Sarah 
Silverman, in that if she had used "n-words" in the same joke, it 
would have made the joke more politically provocative, given how many 
Blacks are snared in the racist criminal justice system, often facing 
largely white & well-off juries (though it would have generated a 
larger controversy, since Blacks are a larger & better organized 
minority than Asians).

*****   A white woman had been called for jury duty but didn't want 
to serve.  "My friend is, like, 'Why don't you write something 
inappropriate on the form, like 'I hate n-words?'" the white woman 
said.  But she didn't want people to think she was a racist, she 
said, so "I just filled out the form and I wrote 'I love n-words' - 
and who doesn't?"   *****

However, I gather Silverman's intention was not at all to satirize 
racism that fuels the war on crimes.

Yoshie