Not So Funny

There seemed to be a very common theme while going through our tv tokenism presentations: black comedians clearly mocking black people. Dave Chappelle, for example, acted out black musician Lil John in an extremely offensive and stereotypical manner. I laughed at his ridiculous representations, but at the same time felt a pang of guilt for laughing. Similar to the Bamboozled clips, these characters are stupified and ridiculous. The common response to this point? It's not racist because Dave Chappelle is black himself.

It's not just Dave Chappelle. It seems to be a multicultural comical strategy to encourage stereotypes on your own culture. Larry David, a famous Jewish comedian, makes countless stereotypical and offensive jewish quips and jokes. This clip (click HERE), from his show Curb Your Enthusiasm, clearly mocks a "holocaust survivor." Aziz Ansari, Indian actor and comedian, compares a chubby Indian child to a shooting star that is "fat, brown, and on the ground."

It's not just famous comedians either. I have heard the response "It's okay, I'm Jewish/Asian/etc." countless times at New Trier. There is a common notion that if you yourself are of a certain ethnicity, it gives you the right to make fun of it. '

Quite clearly, this is wrong. Mocking your own ethnicity and backing up stereotypes only gives others the belief that these stereotypes are valid. You may believe it gives you power to be able to poke fun at yourself, but in reality it just gives the public the complete power to poke fun at your entire race.