racist comedy

[joanna bujes]

At 02:28 PM 08/24/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>There is a deeply authoritarian streak in many whites' insistence
>that if we don't find ethnic & racial slurs, ethnic & racial jokes,
>etc. funny, we must have no sense of humor & may be even a bit dense,
>especially when such "cool brothers" as Chris Rock & Samuel Jackson
>(_Hollywood Shuffle_ indeed!) are there to reassure everyone that the
>said whites are no racists.
>
>Yoshie

The most racist comedy I have seen recently was Spike Lee's
"Kings of Comedy." It made me very angry to see comedy routines built 
around the themes of how blacks are stupid, how corporal punishment is 
funny, and how sexism is funny. This, in case you haven't seen it, is 
comedy delivered by black comedians to a black audience. It's on video too now.

So far as I can see, racism is a poison that totally permeates this 
culture. (I am not saying it does not exist in other cultures.) It is 
possible to do comedy and raise consciousness about racism: Dick Gregory 
used to do it, Whoppi Goldberg used to do it. What Spike Lee and others are 
doing right now is beyond me.

Joanna Bujes