Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!blake!ogccse!littlei!uunet!wucs1!wuphys!wucfua!jlc From: jlc@wucfua.wustl.edu (Roving UIUC CS Grad Student) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: Do ethnic jokes CAUSE bigotry? Message-ID: <392@wucfua.wustl.edu> Date: 6 Dec 88 01:40:22 GMT References: <4204@cs.utexas.edu> Reply-To: jlc@wucfua.UUCP (Roving UIUC CS Grad Student) Organization: Great Cthulu's Starry Wisdom Band Lines: 45 In article <4204@cs.utexas.edu> berleant@cs.utexas.edu (Dan Berleant) writes: >Do ethnic jokes cause bigotry? > >Sadly, the answer appears be a definite yes. > >There have been examples right here in the current discussion of ethnic >jokes. A number of anti-semitic slurs were sent in reaction to rather >moderate posts. I haven't noticed any anti-semitic slurs ON THE NET (although there certainly appear to have been some via E-Mail, unfortunately). However, I'd agree that the "racist" joke has provoked some bigoted responses, largely on the part of those protesting it. More than once I've seen the "white male == bigot" assertion made (and, thankfully, challenged). To that extent I'd agree that ethnic jokes have caused some display of bigotry. "Caused" is much too strong a word --- I strongly suspect that the bigoted attitudes, both of the anonymous E-Mailers and the anti-White male bigots on the net, were there before The Joke was posted and all this discussion erupted. >Promoting ethnic jokes in rec.humor.funny (by the moderator, an official >agent of usenet) has no benefit whatever, and promotes bigotry as well. An "official agent of usenet"? USENET *HAS* no "official agents" --- it's an anarchy. The closest you could come to an "official agent" are the highly unofficial net.gods --- those that have been around a long time and have authority due to expertise. There is, simply, nothing and no one that can be pointed at and called USENET. And "no benefit whatever"? I think there may have been a definite benefit: those who actually believe in the ethnic stereotypes have been informed by the majority of those on the net that WE DO NOT. And those that believe that ethnic jokes actually do perpetuate ethnic stereotypes have, hopefully, seen that their view is also not shared by most of those on the net. >Dan -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | John L. Coolidge Internet:jlc@wucfua.wustl.edu UUCP:jlc@wucfua.uucp | | "My other account is in Illinois" I just read news here... | | With the exception of included material: All above opinions are mine. | | Licensing terms available. Copyright (c) 1988 John L. Coolidge. Copying | | allowed if and only if attributed. All other rights reserved. | --------------------------------------------------------------------------