Wait until he tells a joke like this one.
And wait-I thought that Obama was a disgusting bigot-shouldn’t you be GLAD he’s being insulted?
:rolleyes: :dubious:
As for the political joke, as others have said, it doesn’t sound racist, it sounds like the one where three presidents (Clinton, um, Bush Sr? and George W.) try to get out of being shot by enemies by distracting them yelling out “Earthquake!” “Volcano!” or other disasters. Dubya’s turn?
FIRE!
I think it is a racist joke.
Consider the history of black men being lynched when they got too “uppity.” Lynchings were very effective in keeping blacks “in their place.” They were necessary to maintain white supremacy.
Barack Obama has committed the ultimate act of uppityness. Therefore, his death is necessary to maintain the “proper” social order. The uncle was saying that his assassination is inevitable because his is black.
It might not be the most egregiously racist joke ever, but the racial allusion was immediately obvious to me.
Kennedy was assassinated, not lynched. What seems immediately obvious to you also happens to be unsupported by anything in the text of the joke.
It is not a racist joke. The obviously different version of the joke would be:
**What do Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama have in common?
Answer: Nothing Yet**
Instead he used Kennedy. It isn’t a good joke but it is very mild. Talking about banning a family member for that is over the top crazy. I have banned family members from my house or limited their access but that was for things that were 1000x worse like stealing or addicts going through our medicine cabinets.
I suggest that the OP should live and learn and find out what bad behavior truly is. In the unlikely event the kids asked about the joke, you could just say that they were both inexperienced senators that had to take over hard situations very quickly.
Not to mention the OP thinks nothing of telling incredibly misogynistic jokes-albeit, not infront of little kids. Or how he thinks Obama is a total bigoted homophobe.
He hasn’t told us anything else about this uncle-does he have a history of racism? What was the context-what brought this up? Was he drunk?
Magiver was agreeing with and adding to your post, not directing at you.
Really? My take on it was that he was referring to Kennedy, the last president that ever inspired hope and change for the country in a big way. Kennedy was white. To compare Obama to Kennedy in saying that he is going to be assassinated isn’t saying that is going to happen because he’s black. It’s going to happen because traditionally any leader inspiring change has been killed.
Now that last joke about hanging from a Christmas tree, I actually gasped out loud. 90 or not, she would have gotten an earful from me. (I did have to school my elderly grandma on why ‘coloured folk’ isn’t such a great term anymore)
Well, I’m with those who say both the joke and x-mas ornament are certainly tasteless, but IMO at least moderately humorous. Although I can consider them humorous, I would never say them out loud at a family gathering. Heck, my 3 sisters are all catholic and my family is atheist, so we don’t even discuss religion. it is just courtesy.
My FIL is a die-hard racist. When he would say offensive things we would say “We disagree with that, and find it ignorant and offensive.” If he refused to refrain form saying such things around our kids, we would cease relations with him. But it would sure take more than the relatively mild joke in the oP.
Fortunately, my FIL is enough of an asshole that we had other reasons to cut off all relations with him! :rolleyes:
It’s not clear to me the uncle is racist himself. He’s just pointing out that others are. It strikes me as gallows humor, or graveyard humor, or dare I say it, black humor.
Can’t we all just get along?
As Scumpup pointed out, I was agreeing with you and adding to it. I didn’t clarify the subject in my sentence and should have put the op’s name in parenthesis. I think you nailed it with the idea of passive aggressive behavior.
The joke doesn’t make sense that way. He said they have nothing in common, so that means the ‘they both inspire hope’ thing doesn’t work.
I think the point of the joke is that he is black, so he will be assasinated. Then, and only then, will he have something in common with Kennedy.
The joke made me laugh.
What if it was your dad? Seriously.
The family bonds are precious and IMHO you don’t want to be resposible for tearing those bonds apart.
Much better to engage and confront your Uncle like you most probably did (like me) with your dad on many issues as a teenager.
If your Uncle can’t handle it then he can withdraw from the family.
How dare you say that. 
Film noir, anyone?
I agree with those who say that ostracizing him for telling one tasteless joke is way over the top.
That was a lousy thing to say, and I wouldn’t invite your uncle to any events I was hosting at my home.
But I wouldn’t feel I had any right to put my foot down for the family as a whole.
So… who’s cooking/hosting Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner? If it’s you, go ahead and disinvite him, making sure all other relatives know why.
But if your Mom or aunt is hosting, you have no business telling her she can’t invite him. What you CAN do is let them know that YOU won’t be attending any family events if he’s going to be there.
Dude, she’s ninety frickin’ years old.
A propensity for saying offensive, inappropriate, and/or bigoted things is a very common symptom of advanced age.
Jokes about the assassination of a President, particularly jokes that imply it should happen, particularly with overtones of aggrieved racists longing to oppress, are neither mild nor funny. It’s dumbass, but more than that, it’s provocative.
People tell “jokes” like that mainly to put bystanders to the choice of objecting, and being labeled as humorless, or remaining silent, and being co-opted into complicity. I see it as a deliberate tactic.
In this choice, I reject silence.
Cmon, black humour is time-honoured and US presidents ain’t exempt from it: “Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”