Originally posted by infallible
Mile, just an observation at why those two JOKES are okay, when your SERIOUS reply is not.
What was serious about my reply? It was sarcasm. I used an Arab name to get accross a point in a sidways manner. A joke is the same thing. So you're saying if every body gets a laugh out of it it's okay. If it points out a potential danger, it's not.
Because, those two jokes were in fact jokes, and they are funny because they pun off of stereo-types. Black's Asian's White women, and White men are all made fun of in the one comic strip. I laughed at that, and I am NOT racist to anyone of those ethnics. So your statement, "If you laughed you are racists" is not true.
Black people steal cars. So if my car got stolen and I said "Damn blacks!" that would have to be okay to. It's the same stereotype. Again, whether it makes me laugh has little to do with anything.
This is a big thing people do... evaluate things based soley on if they like it or not, which is a superfluous variable. Your feelings, my feelings, do not matter.
You however, showed your blatant undeniable racism towards Arabs. You ARE racist because you said that ALL Arabs, (a race) should be considered first threat for air - plane terrorism.
Again, I used a known stereotype to convey a point. If you didn't know exactly what I was talking about you wouldn't have understood it to begin with. Sorry it didn't make you laugh. Because that would've made it okay.
Saying that is like saying ALL Americans should be watched out for because they bomb buildings, (Timothy McVeigh) Maybe that's not the best example, but the point should still come across.
You're right. It's a bad example. There is a Jihad against America as announced by Osama Bin Laden in his Fatwah. Have you read it? I have read parts but not the whole thing. It is all about Arab Muslims and Allah versus Americans and Jews. And I seriously doubt there is any anti-racisim disclaimer in the parts I missed.
Removing the Arab aspect to this whole mess is an attempt at making things easy for ourselves. It is a symptom of social laziness.
If I was standing at a bus stop next to an Arab, I would be curious about him. I would want to know how it feels for him to be in America now, after 9/11, and I might even ask him how it makes him feel that I, and many others, see Arabs differently now. The damage has been done and I didn't do it, Arabs did. And I believe he would be happy that someone asked him.
I hear all about how Pakistanis have to register with the INS now and many of them are running to Canada. I think it's so unfortunate for them to be inconvenienced by this; even having their lives ruined. And I disagree with plenty of what the so-called Department of Homeland Security is doing. But for me to deny that I associate Arab Muslims with terrorism after 9/11 is a stupid lie, for me and anyone. It serves no purpose but to make you look good to some ideal who's origins nobody can quite pin down so we just pretend it is an a priori truth. In other words it's mental mastubation. A waste of good intentions.
Punk Rock said it good in his reply to your thread.
He said I was an ignorant, racist idiot. Funny, I don't feel like one. And if I was, rest assured, I wouldn't deny it. That would be immoral in my book. Honesty is an inevitable side effect of my morality and I don't do anything I'll have to lie about later.
I don't know if i've helped or not, but that's my two cents
You have. And I appreciate your taking the time to write a thought out post, even if it's lazy and force-fed with clouded, preconceived notions about the nature of stereotypes, hate, and difference.
I wouldn't want to have to do any 'enforcing'... over the web.
I think you just said that a joke is a way to get across a point, in a sideways manner. If that's what you were trying to say, I will 
