One of the funny quirks about today's society is the subject of race. Everyone has a race, just as everyone has a nose, but nobody wants to talk about that. Nobody wants to make race-based observations and definitely, nobody wants to joke about racial themes. That is because if you do wax humorous about race, you risk the possibility of being labeled a racist. However, isn't the point of humor to shed a little nervous light on our silly prejudices and baseless stereotypes? Why should the bearer of that message be named as the racist? As a fan of offensive humor of all types, I find it rather amusing when people get angry at racial implications that weren't intended to be offensive at all.
In 2008, the Spanish national basketball team posed for a photo with all members using their fingers on their faces to make "slanty eyes" as a gesture of camaraderie with the Chinese, who were hosting the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Naturally, reaction to the photo was akin to as if someone had shot a panda. The gesture, in thought, was cute, but the Spanish people don't have the same racial sensitivities that everyone else does. In that sense, the Spanish are a lot like the Aussies in a recent comedy skit fiasco. Upon hearing of a Jackson 5 parody performed by white men in blackface makeup, the American media went nuts. Though lacking in any humor that is meaningful to Americans, the skit was not aimed at them. It was simply a cultural schism that those who were ready, willing and able to be offended easily ignored.
Pulling a file from the "everyone thinks it, but can't quite put it into words" department, let's take a look at how the touchy subject of race looms over our heads when we have to deal with it as a matter of fact. In a study where subjects were asked to categorize photos of people by binary characteristics (2 options for skin color, gender, age range, hair color, background color, etc.), all participants were very accurate with their color-based categorizations. Then, when asked to rate their ability to classify photos based on the same characteristics, white subjects in the study tended to purposefully underestimate their skin color categorization skills. Of course, they rated their ability to nail the other color-based criteria rather high. That is to say, they wanted to appear color-blind, but not completely.
Color-blindness only gets us so far, though. Sometimes you just need to get straight to the point, but even that depends on who you're talking to. In a follow-up study, a group of white participants were partnered with confederates of either black or white skin. The participants were given the task of asking questions to their confederate about photos of people they were both looking at in order to identify, out of a group of six, which photo the confederate had quietly chosen. Participants with white confederates were more likely to mention race as a descriptive element when trying to get a positive answer. When partnered with a black confederate, the white participants danced neatly around the skin color issue while using other traits to nail down a choice.
When we fear being labeled, it changes our mode of communication. It makes us less efficient and more suspect. There is irony in that, because someone who is overtly sensitive to their own mentioning of race can in turn be seen as a racist who is just trying to save face. We should probably just drop the pretense. Relax. Take a deep breath. Say it: "Black." What does it mean? Nothing but a color.
By the way, what did the Nazi say to the black Jew?
"Get to the back of the oven."
Source:
Color Blindness and Interracial Interaction
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