Would you find anything wrong with this conversation I heard my friends have?
“I’m sorry your son got deferred from the Ivies.”
“Yeah, he’s inconsolable.”
"You know, you could just marry a Hispanic guy or a black guy and have your last names all changed to say ‘Sanchez’ or “Rodriguez’ or … I don’t know any typical black names … I guess ‘Obama’? Yeah. That’d be impressive. [Insert son’s name] Obama. I guarantee you that if your son resubmitted his app, the results would be different.”
Okay, well, that wasn’t the exact conversation they had, but it was much to that effect, and yes, the person brought up the same exact last names I mentioned above. Including “Obama.”
Anything wrong with this conversation or it is just harmless fun?
Just me: as I was listening I was cringing inside.
The short-lived Judd Hirsch comedy Dear John didn’t have a problem with joking about it.
…oh, you meant that AA.
Well, I chose “4” since the joke was told in private between individuals who presumably knew the other wasn’t being directly racist, but merely criticizing the AA system itself. I would be loathe to tell such a joke in public, though. (An inappropriate example would be Larry David’s ill-advised joke in the second season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which I couldn’t find a link for.)
It’s impossible to tell without knowing the subtext. Average (by Ivy standards) white kid who already has a chip on his shoulder making a crack about “All those Sanchez’s” getting into the Ivy league when he doesn’t know the first fucking thing about it? Annoying as hell. Kid who fully realizes that anyone getting into the Ivy League these days is both pretty damn remarkable and pretty damn lucky making a crack to his Hispanic friend “Hey, will you adopt me? I need an edge!”, could be harmless and funny.
I mean, it’s ok for jokes, especially private jokes, to be inappropriate. The only thing that would be cringe-worthy is if the joke seemed to suggest a festering inner sea of bitterness and resentment and cluelessness.
I’m not sure I understand your poll options. For example, it is harmless fun unless it’s not harmless fun. In other words, I have no problem with this conversation as long as it is known to be a joke by both parties. If one of them believes that this is a truthful statement, it moves from the category of harmless fun to the spreading of ignorance.
(For example, my new receptionist started two days before our computers had some issues that required a fair amount of IT work to fix. Everyone in the office is joking that she broke QuickBooks. She was the first one to make that joke. We all know it’s not true - she hadn’t even gotten that far in her training. So it is funny *because *it’s not true. If someone in the office was truly grumbling that it was her fault, then that’s not funny.
We’d have to make sure they understood the truth.)
Mostly harmless but the intent does matter, as said. If it sounds like they’re complaining, I’m not offended, just cringing. It doesn’t need to be private if a joke as I’ve heard worse from comedians.
I thought AlAnon too.
Neutral ones that aren’t religious or culturally based: Washington, Jefferson… Van Buren? No? Also Black is a very white name but White is I think is more often a black name.
I thought AlAnon too. In Catholic schools, the only color that matters is green.
When I think of the entitled students who got into Ivy League without having to really earn it, I think of lower income minorities. They have it so easy.
Also, I thought this was gonna be about alcoholism.
I’m still here and watching. I probably should have clarified what I meant by AA though, but then, I thought most people would know from the context I was speaking of affirmative action.
Replies are interesting. Yeah, I already let on what I felt about it, but on the other hand, I understood the conservation to be one among friends, and that neither party would reenact such a conservation in public. But then, that raises the question of is it alright to be a closeted racial jokester.