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How about a Joke

Posted 37 months ago|19 comments|752 views

TAGS

Swine Flu , 100 Days , President

Written by

Billyberoo
Cedar Park, TX

I'll keep it short and sweet.
It was once said "a black man will become president when pigs fly." Well 100 days into the Obama presidency...Swine Flu!!!!!!

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TheLegendTomWing

Administrator
Philadelphia, PA

37 months ago: haha, funny! i like it.

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amishking

Moderator
Auburn, NY

37 months ago: Ok, that there is funny.

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Rudi Stettner

Moderator

37 months ago: So fast someone came up with that? Amazing!

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Coloranter Raver
Denver, CO

37 months ago: Not sure, but I think this joke has racial overtones. Actually, I'm being too kind, this is a racist joke, and I am embarrassed by the good colleagues of mine that have called it funny. It's not funny.

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Billyberoo
Cedar Park, TX

37 months ago: You have a problem with almost everything I read on here. Enjoy life. I bet if Chris Rock or Eddie Murphy said it you would be rushing to the store to buy the DVD. It is a play on words that's all.

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SugarPop

37 months ago: I thought it was funy. Everyone's a little bit racist...even black people. It's all good fun (in this case). There are pleanty of nasty racist jokes out there that I don't like, but I didn't see any harm in this one.

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The Cypress Gang

37 months ago: Find Sarah. It needs lipstick!
Sorry, that was a bulldog.

bulldog fleas?

No. It doesn't work.

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howleanne

37 months ago: My husband got this as a text yesterday, it's hilarious!!!

CO, you have to admit that if a joke isn't racist, sexist, or any other "ist" it's just not funny.

And really, what is racist about it? The fact that it's true? How many people do you know that actually believed there would ever be a black president? It's not like it's saying anything bad about black people. It is simply saying that even 4 years ago, I could probably count on one hand the amount of people who would have guessed one day a black man would be president.

Take it for what it is: A JOKE

(One might say the same about a blonde)

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howleanne

37 months ago: Can I just say that the term "African American" drives me nuts! I mean, if you are *actually* an African American, that's cool, but please tell me why the term "black" is so vulgar, like so many people seem to think it is!

I am "white." I don't ask you to call me "European American" or "English American" or "German American" etc. Although that is what my lineage is. Or "Swedish-German-English American" if you really want to get specific. I'm WHITE! (And please don't get me started on "Caucasian" either) Black people who don't like the term "black" and prefer the term "African American" don't make any sense to me. Most black people's families from whom they descend are more "American" than my family. Meaning, their families have been in this country longer than mine. My family has only been in this country for about 4 generations, while most black people can go back hundreds of years.

This statement: "He is the ½ white & ½ African son of an American and an African" to me, says the term "African American" could be more easily applied to Obama than most "black" people in this country, if in fact, the "African" part is accurate.

However, this statement: "He is for better or for worse the product of White upbringing not African upbringing and certainly not African American upbringing! So please, don’t call the man black." really confuses me. If you don't think he's "African American" or "black" what do you think he is? And it was never a question about how he was raised, white family or not. If I were to have been raised in a black home, you wouldn't call me black... cuz I'm white.

Eh, anyway... the joke is that, "when pigs fly" and "swine flu." Like, a swine is a pig. and Flu is like flew/fly. Pigs fly, swine flu... anyway, I hope that made sense!

It was a joke, meant to be funny.
Cheers everyone!

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howleanne

37 months ago: I see what you're saying, Siempre, but does that mean that because I want to be called white that I want people to see me as a color, and that I'm not American, or that I "don't care"?

I don't see how Eurpoean American is a "step back" for me and African American is a step forward (?) for them. My ancestors are European, a black person's ancestors are African. That seems the same "step back," as you call it, to me.

And I know what you mean when you say that black people have struggled to be considered American, but really? We're in the year 2009, I think (in 99.9% of places) they don't have to fight for that any more.

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Billyberoo
Cedar Park, TX

37 months ago: I here what you are saying siempre. If you mean by white people holding blacks back things like LBJ's War on Poverty, that created dependence by blacks and other poorer minorities upon the government, I agree fully.

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Billyberoo
Cedar Park, TX

37 months ago: If you are talking about how leaders in the black community (funded by the rich, elitist realms of the Democrat Party, and Hollywood, who feel guilty) like the REV's Jesse Jackson, and Al (not so) Sharpton who constantly tell their own community the are victims not citizens, I also agree.

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Coloranter Raver
Denver, CO

37 months ago: I've been away, fomenting on this 'joke' and why it makes me angry and why it's not funny and why it's racist. I've been unable to think cogently because I've been so angry and disappointed by this 'joke'.

Ok, so here's why it's racist...
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The joke is defined by race:

The 'joke' begins with "a black man". That makes the 'joke' about race.

If the 'joke' said, "a Jew will become president..." or "a woman will become president", or as howleanne said, "a blond will become president" it would be defined by those parameters. The writer didn't chose to define it by gender, religion, or hair color, he/she defined it by race.
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The achievement is defined by race:

The short and 'clever' angle embedded in the 'joke' implies that a person's race stood/stands as an impediment to becoming President because the 'joke' suggests that the event will occur when another impossible event occurs, "pigs fly". The implication is that no black person will ever be able to be president.
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The implication is that voters discriminate using race:

Embedded in the 'joke' is the implication that voters will never elect a person who perceived to be a black. If voters use race as a determinant in their voting practice, they are discriminating based on race which is the definition of being racist.
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Therefore the joke is racist, pure and simple.

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Out Of The Box

Moderator

26 months ago: "The 'joke' begins with "a black man". That makes the 'joke' about race. "

Why? Do you ignore the fact that "man" is used in the sentence? Wouldn't this also make it about gender?

"The implication is that voters discriminate using race:"

This is not an implication, it is a statement of undeniable truth. What was the percentage of blacks who voted for Obama simply because he is part black? It works both ways.

How many blonde jokes are acceptable? They are just as racist as any ethnic jokes, due to the fact that usually a person's hair color is determined by their race. Haven't the blonde people suffered enough, without the snide snickerings about how dumb they are?

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Coloranter Raver
Denver, CO

37 months ago: Siempre, I appreciate your attempts at helping people to understand racism. You are a champion of this cause at RantRave. I admire your commitment, and I shall stand by your side.

I agree with you that Obama is not Black. Ironically, he is, actually African American bi-racial.

I long for a time in our nation when we will celebrate our differences rather than using them as a source of discrimination and prejudice.

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Coloranter Raver
Denver, CO

37 months ago: The deviousness of this 'joke' is that is appears to be funny and clever when really it is carrying the banner of white prejudice against darker pigmented people that has existed since the founding of this nation.

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Coloranter Raver
Denver, CO

37 months ago: At last, I'd like to address this quotation, "...you have to admit that if a joke isn't racist, sexist, or any other 'ist' it's just not funny."

Not to pick on this writer, but I totally, 100% disagree.
For me, jokes of the classification described are by definition NOT FUNNY. I'm going out on a limb that my destroy my friendships with many of my fellow RantRavers, but I'm going to assert that if one is capable of finding 'jokes' of the aforementioned nature funny, then one is more prejudice than one knows or wants to admit. Toward this end, I call upon a very powerful but overlooked scene from the 2005 remake of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" called "Guess Who" and starring Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac. If you saw the film you will remember a scene where Percy Jones (Mac) asks his daughter's boyfriend Simon (Kutcher) to tell a 'black joke'. "Come on!" he eggs him on. Simon protests he doesn't know any such jokes. Eventually, due to family pressure though, Simon tells a joke, and the entire family bursts into laughter. Percy loves the joke, or so he thinks. Until, Simon tells another and another, and pretty soon he strikes a nerve. The end result is outrage and pain, open wounds, and decades of prejudice and racism.

Any group that is the butt of a joke can develop a thick skin, learn to ignore it, make up jokes of their own, and try to convince themselves the jokes don't hurt. Deep down, though, if you are in that group, these jokes hurt. Of course they do. What hurts more it being told, "It's just a joke." A little white kid growing up in a black neighborhood, being called Red Hot because he's always burning in the sun until he's the color of a Red Hot hot dog, and being the constant butt of joke about how the day a white kid will be the highest paid NBA player, pigs will fly, just think about it.

A more enlightened comic can make jokes and comedy based on situations, not based on ethnocentric prejudices.

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Coloranter Raver
Denver, CO

37 months ago: I think Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, and David Letterman manage to join your list with Bill Cosby.

Now, I know that the term 'African American' was used as the new politically correct term for Black people. Unfortunately, it was never a good choice. It wasn't good for so many reasons not the least of which being that there are countless Black people in the USA who don't have any recent African heritage. There are black people, descendants of slaves in Britain, who immigrated to the USA, for example, who are then what? British Americans? Well, no, they are however Black people and might be subject to the same prejudices against local African Americans and Black people. Meanwhile, there are indigenous people in Africa who are not black. 10th generation South Africans, for example, could be white or black.

Obama, however, has a parent who was Kenyan. Therefore, he truly is an African American. I never thought that African American was the right moniker for Black People, and it turns out a lot of Black people agreed working hard the past 10 years to return to being called Black people.

Again, I believe it will be very nice when we can stop all this racial nonsense and focus on being great people, celebrating our unique differences but also dropping their associated prejudices and stereotypes.

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Billyberoo
Cedar Park, TX

37 months ago: Everyone, I want to thank everyone for the discussion. i have now come to understand how some people can be offended by the joke I posted. I, however, don't agree with them. I really do believe that I was celebrating differences by trying to make people laugh (in a similar way Mel Brooks did with "Blazing Saddles", an Norm Lear and Carol O'Conor with "All in the Family")

I do believe that this is the way Americans should discuss race.

I, and a great many people of Republican and conservative values see President Obama as an American. We really don't care about his race. We do however disagree with his philosophy, and I know for myself, I resent people who view me as a racist because of that.

Unfortunately sometimes that resentment builds up enough that I show myself exactly how someone wants to perceive me, no matter how childish it may seem.

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