On Sunday, February 23, 2003, at 02:04 PM, Chip Morton wrote:
At 08:44 AM 2/22/2003, you wrote:
If anybody was offended by this but of off-key humor, I wholeheartedly
apologize.
First off, I applaud you for your apology on this issue, Stacy. It
takes tremendous character and understanding to consider others'
perspectives, even when your own perspective tells you that you've
done nothing wrong.
To all others who responded in favor of the humor or in defense of the
individual's right to free speech, I believe you've missed the point
entirely. The jive filter isn't based on a dialect; it's based on a
centuries old stereotype of African-American speech. The content of
the message wasn't funny at all. But even the mind-numbingly dull GPL
is funny when you make yourself up in blackface with big white lips
and add a little shuffle, isn't it?
I think it is funny to begin with because it is about politics.
The simple fact is that I think most of you are too far removed from
the group you're making fun of to understand why they wouldn't find
the joke nearly as funny. Despite being incredibly enlightened with
regard to technology, most of you are painfully ignorant with respect
to understanding anybody that's not as white-bread as you are.
Perhaps when somebody writes the homo filter or the habib filter or
the lo-wang filter or some other filter that strikes uncomfortably
close to home for you, then you'll understand.
Not at all, I can understand why someone may be offended. But I also
see the humor in it. It isn't a black thing when I laugh at the jive
filter. Actually nowadays I think more of those stupid white kids who
talk like that because they look dumb. And so you understand me I
would find a habib filter funny, a lo-wang one funny, a geronimo one
funny as well (I am American Indian). Hell I'd laugh at a wasp one
too. See the point is these things can only damage a person if they
let it. I don't care what anyone else says about me because I know the
truth. I have been called many, many things from Chief Yellow big-toe
to wagon burner and worse. I have been made fun of, stereottyped,
refused service you name it. But I won;t let some stupid crap get to
me because then they do win.
It is my right to be offended or not offended, just as it is yours.
But it is also his right to post that or say that. It is also my right
to delete the email on move on. And if I have a problem with it to
say something to the poster, preferably in private as not to provoke
this mess, imho. The one thing guaranteed in the USA at least in
theory is the ability to say and do what you want within the rule of
law. Just because something is offensive does not mean it should be
banned, If that were the case then nothing would be legal.
Now i might find something stupid, but I class racist junk as that
stupid ignorance, I pity those ppl, i do not hate them.
Just my .02 cents...
--Larry
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