LogFAQs > #980203385

Euripides posted...

Side story:

I teach in a university theatre program. In my first year, we produced a play (that was not a comedy), in which one white character told another white character a racist joke. The joke did not contain any slurs, but it was clearly making fun of black people. It was not played for a laugh. The playwright's intention was to show that the person telling the joke was an asshole.

That context did not matter to several black students who saw the show and were upset by the joke. It turned into a small shit storm, and we received many angry emails and phone calls about the show.

tl;dr "It's okay that they're saying racist stuff because them being racist is the point!" doesn't hold up with the people who are being joked about

Several years ago I attended a live WWE Raw that was the jumping off point for a rivalry between a guy with a True American/anti-immigration gimmick and his mouthpiece, going against a Mexican wrestler.

The true American character and his manager cut a scathing promo blasting his opponent the Mexican wrestler and immigration in general with the message being all immigrants need to stay out

The WWE obviously thought this was going to be met with boos from the live audience but after the promo concluded the whole place stood up and gave it a deafening standing ovation. It elicited the second loudest cheer of the night. Only The Rocks appearance got a louder cheer