Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 11:27:33 -0800 (PST)
From: Scott McLemee <mclemee-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: Re: M-I: jokes, language and sexism, etc.


On Sun, 10 Nov 1996, Gerald Levy wrote:

> Racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. "jokes" *AREN'T FUNNY*!

Which is a problem.  The judgement is refuted by the fact that people do 
laugh, even people who are hurt by them.  I don't know what to do about 
this.  Black folks watched AMOS & ANDY, and some of them laughed at it; 
 you could make any number of parallels.  This has little direct bearing, 
if any at all, about the dispute at the start of this thread; sorry.  But 
when I see a big, categorical statement like that, the impulse is to undo 
it, to see if there's anything *else* it omits.

I hope that is the kind of discussion we'll continue to have on M-I.  
That, and serious pressing real-world politics.  And not, in any case, 
the sort of neither/nor, personality-driven polemic that seemed to thrive 
on M-1.  Please not that . . .   


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