someone forwarded me a racist joke

[joanna]

one of my co-workers forwarded me (and a number of other people in the office) a (patently, no-doubt-about-it) racist joke with the subject line "funny!" the office is based in austin, tx, but i'm on the west coast, so it was already in my inbox when i woke up this morning, and i responded back immediately: "was i missing the day that 'racist' and 'funny' became interchangeable terms? is that the day that people decided that carlos mencia and dane cook were funny?" blame the fact that i hadn't had coffee yet, but i just couldn't let her think it was okay to send jokes like that to me. she's sent dozens of jokes to me in the past and i usually just delete them immediately because they're all stupid, but i think this is the first one that was offensive.

she wrote back:

"It’s funny because it’s funny – doesn’t mean that just because you find it funny, you’re racist.  I would have thought it was funny if it were any other race or religious preference.   Even my own."

so do i bother to explain to her how i feel or do i just let it go?

[Jason]

Post the joke and I will tell you if it is racist and/or funny.
I am something of an expert in these matters.

[Pat K]

I love it when racist people just go ahead and assume that you're a huge racist like them for no reason.

I also love it when people say or do something (or forward jokes that are) totally racist, and then completely deny that they're a racist. One of my favorite things is when I hear people in the middle of a story drop their voices down to that semi-confidential tone and go, "...Now, you know me, and you KNOW I'm not a racist, but..." That's always a pretty good sign that a racist is about to say something super racist.

I think it's worth it to explain how you feel. You probably won't convince your coworker not to be a racist, but at least you might be able to convince her not be racist within earshot of you (or email-shot).

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I love it when racist people just go ahead and assume that you're a huge racist like them for no reason.

I also love it when people say or do something (or forward jokes that are) totally racist, and then completely deny that they're a racist. One of my favorite things is when I hear people in the middle of a story drop their voices down to that semi-confidential tone and go, "...Now, you know me, and you KNOW I'm not a racist, but..." That's always a pretty good sign that a racist is about to say something super racist.

I think it's worth it to explain how you feel. You probably won't convince your coworker not to be a racist, but at least you might be able to convince her not be racist within earshot of you (or email-shot).

ahahahaaaa.  the infamous, ""...Now, you know me, and you KNOW I'm not a racist, [buuuut]..." which is just a no-turning-back, red flag, here comes the axe, get into crash position headline for, "here's a racist joke/comment/anecdote that says otherwise."

[yesno]

I had a friend who decided, probably rightly, that the most sensitive topic in society was race.  This was the year 1995.

Therefore, he also decided that swear words should be racial in nature, and not religious, sexual, or scatological.

But he could not actually bring himself to yell out racial slurs when he stubbed his toe, etc.  So he would just yell out, "Black!" and the like.

Is that racist?

[joanna]

Is that racist?

i think that's just insane.

[TremblingEagle]

Is that racist?

i think that's just insane.

it has a certain Swiftian logic

[todd]

You really need to post the joke for us to be able to judge.

[Julie]

I got a militant christian email from a co-worker that said all americans opposed to prayer in school should shut up and sit down. Then it quoted some meaningless statistics. Then it made some logical errors, like that if you believe in God, then you believe in school prayer because people who believe in school prayer believe in God. It said that if you didn't agree, you were un-American and the usual kind of bullshit rhetoric that goes along with that stuff.

I replied to everyone who got the email, in the nicest way that I could, that I disagreed, was offended, and never wanted that sort of propaganda again. Of course, I couldn't help briefly mentioning a few of the reasons why I disagreed, like things the constitution says, but that was only to make myself feel better. It's important that people don't associate you with the crap sent to you by some idiot, but I think it's more important that people stand up to those kinds of pigs.

[Stupornaut]

E-mail forwards can eat it. There's five or six in the last month and a half on the What's New page of Snopes that are all weird ultra-right-wing jeremiads and Photoshops of Barack Obama, including one that posits the theory that he's the Antichrist. Stupid internet.

[Gilly]

Anybody ever get the one that's supposed to be Jay Leno talking about prayer in schools? My uncle gave me that one. Forwards are the worst.

[chrisfoll577]

this may be unfair and ageist, but it seems to me like the only email forwards i get are from family members and coworkers over forty.  they usually involve some either heartbreaking story or poem by a kid with a terminal disease, a chain letter, some stupid email experiment or racist, lewd or just plain lame jokes.  i've considered creating a filter to trash any email starting with "fwd:", but i'm paranoid and foolishly think something important might actually be forwarded to me.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

this may be unfair and ageist, but it seems to me like the only email forwards i get are from family members and coworkers over forty.  they usually involve some either heartbreaking story or poem by a kid with a terminal disease, a chain letter, some stupid email experiment or racist, lewd or just plain lame jokes.  i've considered creating a filter to trash any email starting with "fwd:", but i'm paranoid and foolishly think something important might actually be forwarded to me.

youre right, it is with people 40 and over.  oddly, i have the same paranoia because i actually do get legitimate forwards from friends, like, fwd: "here's my itinerary info" or whatever. 


p.s. the aforementioned statement obviously excludes anybody on this board 40+

[Gilly]

40 somethings and a certain group of male friends. Although as more of those male friends get married the less forwards I get. Strange how that works.

[TremblingEagle]

40 somethings and a certain group of male friends. Although as more of those male friends get married the less forwards I get. Strange how that works.

Women keep us civilized