> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Deborah Harrell > Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 10:48 PM > To: Killer Bs Discussion > Subject: Re: [Humor] RE: Who is the sheriff? > > --- Jon Gabriel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >From: Deborah Harrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > >This is *awful*...but good sick gallows humor... > > > > > >Cowboys and Muslims > <snipped joke> > > > This was incredibly offensive and not funny for so > > many reasons. :( > > > > I'm genuinely curious: would you have posted this if > > it had a German making > > a snide comment about playing a 'wipe out the Jews' > > game? > > I'm sorry that you were so offended. It made me laugh > out loud and then groan "Oh, that's so bad..." -- I > would not have posted it if I thought that gallows > humor had no place on the list.
First off, I don't speak for the list. I just speak for me. But if I find something offensive I'll usually speak up. Judging by the responses from Kevin and Rob I'm obviously in the offended minority. Somehow I doubt either of them had family members thrown in the concentration camp ovens and incinerated/cremated while still alive and conscious. In my experience, that sort of thing in a family history tends to make one less than amused by jokes about it. Your apology is accepted. And, for what it's worth, from what I've learned about you over the past few months I truly doubt you purposely intended offense to anyone. I really don't want to give you a hard time on this. I just felt the joke was racist and said so. > But I wouldn't put > it in the same category as a Nazi joke, because: > > (1) there is not (nor will there be) a Texan or > American stated goal or program of wiping out Muslims; > IMO, that doesn't make the joke acceptable. I do understand where you're coming from, but I still disagree. There isn't a stated "goal" of male Americans raping and murdering women either but you won't see me joking about that (hopefully extremely) rare occurrence for any reason. Also, there _used_ to be an unofficial American policy of wiping out Native Americans (I'm simplifying, obviously). The punchline of this joke basically points to Muslims and says 'You're Next.' IMO, that puts it in the same category as the Nazi joke. > (2) I took it as poking (sardonic/political) fun at a > certain 'cowboy,' and jokes about many politicos have > been posted; So the obvious follow-up question is.... do you believe that jokes calling someone a moron has an equal value to those that suggest they and their people are mass murderers? > (3) underneath the humor I read a pointed reminder of > what categorizing people can lead to (frex, the > consequences of past policies that 'dealt with heathen > savages'). > It didn't exactly sound like a warning encouraging American self-examination to me. Jon _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
