# Anything wrong with joking about AA? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968 "2013-12-22T20:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/21 "2013-12-23T04:30:30Z")
I had no idea what the OP was about or how it related to Alcoholics Anonymous. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/22 "2013-12-23T05:42:23Z")
I went with “4.” I assumed both parties didn’t actually think in the simplistic terms implied by the joke. In my circle of friends at high school/college age, the joke would be funny and inoffensive to us because we happened to be familiar with a narrow set of cases where it was actually true and yet relatively harmless: when someone can legitimately claim minority status or not, let’s say because they have one Hispanic parent (and a Hispanic name and surname), and chooses to try to give themself an edge in certain situations, while recognizing both the absurdities of AA and its laudable and necessary accomplishments. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/23 "2013-12-23T05:52:17Z")
ETA: The absurdity being that one could suddenly join an “oppressed group,” and deserve to benefit from whatever remedial efforts society makes toward that group, merely by changing one’s name (through marriage, in the OP’s overheard example.) The underlying humor is about an unavoidable reality: that when individuals are categorized into groups, weird things will happen at the blurry margins…but we have to define things somehow. It’s rather like the absurdity that an alcoholic drink could be deemed harmful five minutes before one’s 21st birthday, but not ten minutes later. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/24 "2013-12-23T06:01:10Z")
I said it was offensive, mostly because I really hate it when people who have had a lifetime of privilege and special consideration sundenly get butt hurt the first time they don’t get exactly what they want. Instead of bitching about the time you didn’t get into the school of your choice, how about celebrating everytime a cop let you off with a warning or everytime you were able to shop at Barney’s without being followed around? ---
**Author:** ![Cerealbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Cerealbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerealbox)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/25 "2013-12-23T06:08:38Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Considering the existence of an actual glass ceiling for Asiatics in the Ivy Leagues, I’d say some people have the right to joke about it. A·si·at·ic (zh-tk, -sh-, -z-) n. Often Offensive An Asian. Usage Note: As with Oriental, the use of Asiatic in referring to the peoples and cultures of Asia sounds conspicuously dated in contemporary American English, tending to evoke the prejudicial and offensive stereotypes of an earlier era. The preferred ethnic term is now clearly Asian. In most other contexts, however, as in Asiatic Russia or the Asiatic elephant, the term remains a neutral geographic descriptor that need not automatically be replaced with Asian. See Usage Note at oriental. Now let me find the definition for irony… ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/26 "2013-12-23T06:17:15Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > or everytime you were able to shop at Barney’s without being followed around? Umm… yeah, I can safely say that I’ll never know what it’s like to shop at Barney’s. But they can follow me if I do. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/27 "2013-12-23T07:17:52Z")
> [@Cerealbox](#): > > A·si·at·ic (zh-tk, -sh-, -z-) > > n. > Often Offensive An Asian. > Usage Note: As with Oriental, the use of Asiatic in referring to the peoples and cultures of Asia sounds conspicuously dated in contemporary American English, tending to evoke the prejudicial and offensive stereotypes of an earlier era. The preferred ethnic term is now clearly Asian. In most other contexts, however, as in Asiatic Russia or the Asiatic elephant, the term remains a neutral geographic descriptor that need not automatically be replaced with Asian. See Usage Note at oriental. > > Now let me find the definition for irony… 1. I’m “Asiatic”, 2) I was using the term in a deliberate sarcastic/archaic manner, and 3) as the definition itself indicates the term is more like “negro” then the N-word. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/28 "2013-12-23T07:26:07Z")
Affirmative action is a racist policy founded on the racist belief that you can average out discrimination among a race - that as long as you seek reparations against people of the same skin colour as the perpetrators, it’s all good. It is contemptible that people think this policy should be above criticism. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/29 "2013-12-23T07:56:25Z")
Doesn’t sound like joking to me. Discrimination is discrimination is discrimination and discrimination against whites is still wrong. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/30 "2013-12-23T08:10:36Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Umm… yeah, I can safely say that I’ll never know what it’s like to shop at Barney’s. But they can follow me if I do. Where you in the running for an Ivy League school? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/31 "2013-12-23T10:05:24Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Where you in the running for an Ivy League school? So, I may not fit in with the WASP audience, but I can safely say I have no fucking clue what you mean…? Hadn’t heard of Barney’s before the story, and can’t afford their $300 belts. I would’ve assumed they were a [low class store](http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130727032332/simpsons/images/6/68/Barney_Gumble_-_shading.png). ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/32 "2013-12-23T11:40:52Z")
Anyway, I pretty much ascribe to Loui CK’s statement: “if you’re white and you don’t admit that it’s great, you’re an asshole.” Being white _maybe_ cut against the whiners in the OP one time. Imagine what a lifetime of that would feel like. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/33 "2013-12-23T13:02:17Z")
AA is for quitters. ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/34 "2013-12-23T13:51:54Z")
> [@Kantian](#): > > 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. Whatever the merits of affirmative action, the story makes me think of the experiences that (I assume) most of us have had with people being afforded the benefits of affirmative action while not actually belonging to the group being favored. The white guy who gets the implausible interview because he majored in African studies and was thought to be black; the average white girl who suddenly discovers that she had some distant relative who was a German living in Argentina and becomes “Hispanic” just in time for college applications; Elizabeth Warren. Maybe it was just my experience growing up, but those people engendered a great deal of resentment (and informs things like “get married and change your name to something ethnic”). So, it’s not a particularly funny joke because it’s just sounds bitter, but I remember the sentiment. ---
**Author:** ![Cerealbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Cerealbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerealbox)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/35 "2013-12-23T14:00:55Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > 1. I’m “Asiatic”, 2) I was using the term in a deliberate sarcastic/archaic manner, and 3) as the definition itself indicates the term is more like “negro” then the N-word. Sorry. Couldn’t tell from the context. Edit: I should have given your user name, but I wasn’t really paying attention to that. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/36 "2013-12-23T15:04:03Z")
I’d never actually heard of AA as referring to African-Americans before this thread, either. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/37 "2013-12-23T16:10:09Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > ETA: The absurdity being that one could suddenly join an “oppressed group,” and deserve to benefit from whatever remedial efforts society makes toward that group, merely by changing one’s name (through marriage, in the OP’s overheard example.) The underlying humor is about an unavoidable reality: that when individuals are categorized into groups, weird things will happen at the blurry margins…but we have to define things somehow. It’s rather like the absurdity that an alcoholic drink could be deemed harmful five minutes before one’s 21st birthday, but not ten minutes later. Good point. While at first the idea that one could claim Affirmative Action benefits merely by signing on the dotted line to officially join a minority seems like an abuse, it’s not as simple as it seems. Consider that some families will shun members who don’t uphold the “family values” etc. etc. and who do things that the family does not approve of. What happens when Privileged White Girl ™ marries a Puerto Rican and gets shunned by her family for not marrying a White Protestant and is told by her father, “how dare you, guess we’re not paying for your college after all!” Maybe she’s now in a position where she really needs help from society in getting back on her feet after her “own people” disowned her and threw her in the pile of people to be oppressed or at least not honored. ---
**Author:** ![Kantian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@Kantian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantian)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/38 "2013-12-23T16:58:28Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Where you in the running for an Ivy League school? Were you? ---
**Author:** ![Kantian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@Kantian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantian)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968/39 "2013-12-23T16:59:29Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I’d never actually heard of AA as referring to African-Americans before this thread, either. I meant AA to refer to affirmative action. I suppose it could also refer to African-Americans, or Asian-Americans, or as several posters have pointed out, Alcoholics Anonymous. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-wrong-with-joking-about-aa/676968.md?page=1)