Does a single person here find this racist? My rant on my sociology class

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


I don't make the connection between cannibal and sodomite, Wernazuma. Why would you?

What about that dude in Germany?

[chequita guevara]

Dr.S said it best. A colony which murdered over two million people is not a good source. Cannibalism may well have existed in those conditions, where people were starving to death by the millions, just as in St. Petersberg.

Doesn't sound like the same Congo that converted to Catholcism in the 16th Century and had an ambassador in Lisboa.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


I don't make the connection between cannibal and sodomite, Wernazuma. Why would you?

Did I mention you personally? Take a look to post #1 and you'll find both cannibalism and sodomy mentioned as stereotypes of "inferior cultures"

@Agathon

Putting inferior in emphasis doesn't mean that I would deny that it can make sense to compare two different societies. The problem ist that people from "superior" cultures who are too aware of that superiority tend to look on members of "inferior" cultures as inferior people which, in turn, makes their own superiority very doubtful. Aristotle anyone? Again, this doesn't equal a cultural relativism.

Anyways, this thread wasn't asking whether or not cannibalism should be viewed as something bad or something neutral ( ) but whether or not stereotype jokes which of the Congo-bungabunga etc.-type are racist or not and I say as long as they aren't based on any reality, they are racist.

The Congo is by no means especially known or suspected for cannibalism or sodomy, but it is a topos for "wilderness" or "backward people from somewhere". IMHO, the only way to defend the position that the joke is not racist would be to prove the especially sodomitic and/or cannibalistic nature of (former) Congoan culutres.

[The Mad Viking]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Dr.S said it best. A colony which murdered over two million people is not a good source. Cannibalism may well have existed in those conditions, where people were starving to death by the millions, just as in St. Petersberg.

Doesn't sound like the same Congo that converted to Catholcism in the 16th Century and had an ambassador in Lisboa.

So because the King of Belgium was a bad guy, we must discount the careful, scholarly writings of an American.

I wasn't aware that in the 16th century, the Congo was a country; nor that a country could convert to Catholicism. How many of the over 200 tribes could the ambassador represent? The Congo to this day is only half catholic. Who is believing the suspect imperial history here?

It is not a coincidence, IMO that the most inhospitable, difficult regions of dense tropical rainforest in the world all gave rise to some tribes with some cannabilistic tendencies. Congo, New Guinea, Amazon.

And then there is the Fang.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by The Mad Viking
I wasn't aware that in the 16th century, the Congo was a country; nor that a country could convert to Catholicism.

It was and it did.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by The Mad Viking
So because the King of Belgium was a bad guy, we must discount the careful, scholarly writings of an American.

No, because of the conditions that existed under Leopold we must discount the idea that anything that anyone observed under his reign was nomral. One might as well visit Aushwitz during the war and conclude that Jews don't like to eat.

[Ben Kenobi]

Wernazuma:

It's a fricking joke.

I admit it does take the PC folks to task, though.

[Firelad]

About humour etc. - we tell holocaust jokes all the time. At least my friends do. The kind of people I hang out with. They do get carried away with it occasionally, forgetting that there are other funny things in the world apart from holocaust-themed Audience Participation Lines at Rocky.
NM.
I like that joke btw. It's quite amusing.
And it's 10,000 BANJO PLAYERS at the bottom of the ocean, please!
(Me amateur banjo player btw. Only banjo players like banjo jokes.)

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Wernazuma:

It's a fricking joke.

Yes, and a bad one, because a racist one.

I admit it does take the PC folks to task, though.

I didn't get a moral outrage because of the joke however, I just stated that it is racist, which in fact is true. I think it's opinion-Nazi to try to disavow my opinion by labeling it "PC".
If disapproving racist jokes makes me a PC loon, then be it so.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes, and a bad one, because a racist one.

Damn, if you think that's a bad one because it is racist, then you miss out on a LOT of good jokes .

If disapproving racist jokes makes me a PC loon, then be it so.

You're a PC loon .

What happens if someone like Chris Rock tells a racist joke against blacks? Is that wrong.. does him being black matter?

[Pax]

This joke is not funny.
I heard it a long time ago.
Not racist in present form. I did not see a black person. If you mention cannibals I think of the Pacific Islands. Probably from too much gilligan's island. When I hear sodomy I think of Greeks and Romans.

Comedians like Chris Rock may make everyone laugh but they are not saying the same things to every person that hears it. A lot of his comedy speaks on things that are bothering him as an 1. American 2. Black 3. Man 4. New Yorker and etc. You may connect on different levels. Lastly, his comedy speaks to things to change, to discuss, to think about. It's without malice or hate.

The BMW joke. Black man's wish racist
The Womback joke, Black guy helping a guy back his car in "Womback!!!" racist
Archie Bunker personifying bigotry to show American society how ridiculous it is- not racist

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's without malice or hate.

Indeed, but I don't think this joke is with any malice or hate... it's just to get a laugh.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
You're a PC loon .

The PC loons I know would counter the joke by denying the possibility of cannibalistic cultures in the Congo itself.

What happens if someone like Chris Rock tells a racist joke against blacks? Is that wrong.. does him being black matter?

I don't know Chris Rock, so I can't tell, but a joke remains racist if it's racist, no matter whether the performer is black or white. It can change the meaning, however, depending on the larger context in which it is told. To discover the real meaning one has to know the circumstances, that's called hermeneutic analysis.
In the ordinary "pub-5-beers-harhar" situation the joke would be racist.
The topos of a connection black people-cannibalism is part of a tendentially hateful and demeaning image of Africans. A few months ago I came across an American Nazi or KKK site and on top of the page there was a collage of a photo with a black man and a cooking pot and a white man in it...

[Imran Siddiqui]

The topos of a connection black people-cannibalism is part of a tendentially hateful and demeaning image of Africans. A few months ago I came across an American Nazi or KKK site and on top of the page there was a collage of a photo with a black man and a cooking pot and a white man in it...

Actually I think you may be more racist than the joke. It said NOTHING about cannibals!

[Az]

Originally posted by Firelad
About humour etc. - we tell holocaust jokes all the time. At least my friends do. The kind of people I hang out with.

For shame.