[Augustine23383]

To older people: Many people, especially those who came of age before the Civil Rights movement, complain under their breath that they can’t tell jokes anymore that poke fun at racial or ethnic groups, women, minority religions, etc. I would be interested in knowing where the “fun” element rests here. One gets the impression these are people who weren’t raised with much respect for those who were different from them. The jokes (for instance, “Polack” jokes – my wife is Polish) typically betray ignorance of the target group. I would like to know why yesterday’s world was “better” in this respect.

User Detail :  

Name : Augustine23383, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 38, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Jim Watson]

I’ll take a stab at answering this question from a personal basis. When I was young, my world was much smaller – consisting only of the people that I knew or was connected with in some manner (church, school, work, community). There were certainly jokes which were distasteful but the far majority of jokes that were told (ethnic, religious, gender) were told not to demean but, rather, told in an inclusive humorous attitude – and they were accepted that way – and we laughed at ourselves — which is one of the most important requirements of human intercourse. As I grew, my world expanded in awareness via communications and I found that many of the things I thought humorous now violated someone’s senses — which are defined by a term called being ‘Political Correct’. Too bad! Not only have we lost our sense to laugh at ourselves, we now have developed a society of hypocrites who still can see humor – ‘PC’ just doesn’t allow them to admit humor. I’ll prove it to you. The very first ‘Polack’ joke I ever heard was told to me by a girl named Anna Soski who asked me if I knew who Alexander Graham Bellonski was – and when I said no – she told me he was the last of the great telephone Poles. Now, don’t smile, because it’s an ethnic joke and ‘PC’ doesn’t allow you to see the humor – it would be hypocritical of you. And you can’t tell your wife because she has a Polish heritage and wouldn’t appreciate the joke (although methinks you may not appreciate the Polish people’s ability to recognize humor and laugh at themselves.) But now I’m going to tell you why I didn’t laugh at the joke. When Anna told me, I didn’t know who ‘Poles’ were – she had to explain – then I laughed. Bottom line – loosen up. Us old people won’t be around much longer and you’ll be able to live in your ‘PC’ world in peace.

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Name : Jim Watson, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 69, City : Reisterstown, State : MD, Country : United States, Occupation : Retired, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Rick]

I wouldn’t have a coronary about it. When I hear my Grandfather rant and say things that would surely get someone my age beaten to a pulp for saying, I can’t help but laugh a little and realise how things have changed. I’m not here to determin what jokes are good or bad, but when you take yourself and everyone too seriously I think you do more damage than good. I think people learn tolerance through humor more than anything.

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Name : Rick, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Springfield, State : MO, Country : United States, Occupation : Designer, Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, 

[Jesse]

Basically no matter how offensive these jokes may be to you. To someone from a previous era it is familiar territory. Familiar territory doesn’t have the problems of not knowing where everything is headed. It’s like blonde jokes…You always know the punchline ahead of time. To them there is little difference.

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Name : Jesse, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 28, City : Huntington, State : WV, Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[ShirleyAvery]

I think we’ve gone way overboard with politcal correctness. The pendulum swung from one extreme to the other, i.e., in order to combat the older, truly offensive, mean-spirited, hateful ethnic jokes & comments, we went to the other extreme becoming overly cautious. I think it’s time to chill out and regain a sense of humor and be able to distinguish between hateful & playful jokes. For example, I’m female and Jewish. I’d be offended by jokes that refer to females as C**nts or ho’s, or that call Jews kikes, but I enjoy jokes that are not mean-spirited and poke fun of certain stereotypical behavior of women and Jews. Some of those jokes I don’t find funny, but I’m not offended. Just Curious

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Name : ShirleyAvery, Gender : F, Disability : none, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 52, City : st. louis, State : MO, Country : United States, Occupation : writer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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