Even a slightest reference to race is very risky

No.

Much like lavenderviolet’s statement, He/she was making a delineation between “genuine” rape and not “genuine” rape.

How does that differ from his/her statement about it not being “genuine” bigotry? When would it not be genuine bigotry?

My intent, at least, was far more making fun of racism than of race.

The joke was at the expense of the training consultant who was teaching the diversity and sensitivity course, because she had no way of knowing I wasn’t serious. But my black co-worker knew damn well I wasn’t serious, and he thought it was funny. So, really, I was playing to him, not to anyone else.

But the OP is right. I was taking a chance. My friend might not have thought it was funny, in which case I’d just dug myself a grave and laid myself out in it. It was unwise.

But, please, believe me – maybe you had to be there – it was funny! The one guy who had the most right and reason to take it badly…didn’t, and, instead, laughed more than anyone else there (and I was pretty darn sure that was how he would take it.)

Remember the old National Lampoon, back when it used to be funny :trade_mark:? They had lots and lots of grotesquely overt racism… But it was so over-the-top, it mostly came across as lampooning racism itself. It’s an extremely dangerous gambit; some people won’t see the implied irony, the hidden double-negative, and only see the overt racist content.

Was National Lampoon committing “genuine” racism, or were they involved in a kind of “in your face” consciousness-raising? It isn’t an easy question to answer.

(Are “The Vagina Monologues” genuine sexism?)