An old friend of mine on Facebook posted the following quote attributed to Bob Newhart:
I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’.
My friend is a liberal, by the way, and the joke was met with laughter and approval.
So, since so many people are talking about today’s Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, let me ask a very non-PC question…is the same joke acceptable if it’s phrased this way?
I don’t like rap music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like rap music, denigrate means ‘put down’.
It’s exactly the same joke, except with a different style of music in the set-up.
I think we all know how the liberals would respond…to the second joke.
What do you think?
UPDATE
Here’s an answer from another Facebook friend of mine:
Jordan Farrar Sorry, but there IS a double standard and there SHOULD be. Racism against whites, is NOT comparable to whites being racist against non-whites. The reason, institutionalized racism. A Black person can call me cracker or peckerwood all they want, I still make a dollar to their .75 cents, and am 2/3rds less likely to serve time for the same crime. If I lived in Zimbabwe, things might be different.
So let me get this straight: Because Person A discriminated against Person B, it is ok for persons C, D, and E to discriminate against person F because Person F is the same color as Person A? Or, looked at differently, a person who is STATISTICALLY more likely to earn less is allowed to discriminate against a person STATISTICALLY likely to earn more regardless of their actual circumstances? This is just insane. I don’t think these “progressives” really are the least bit aware of how totally racist they are in their desire to appear not to be racists. In fact, they want to keep racism alive and mete out retribution for past acts of racism by other people. It is complete insanity.
There is a slight difference. “Denigrate” is a harmless enough word, per se, but when used in proximity with “rap” — which obviously suggests “black” — music, it inevitably calls to mind the term (the one derived from the Latin word for “black”) which black people find most offensive. It would be disingenuous to pretend that this is not so. What would be a mild crack for most groups is much more offensive in that particular context.
Which means we have a different set of rules for each ethnic group. For instance, if LeBron James goes into a slump, and a sports headline writer says he has a chink in his armor, nobody thinks it’s racist. But if it’s Jeremy Lin, the writer MVST be fired for his crime.
Also consider the Southwest Airlines flight attendant who urged the passengers to debark by saying “Eenie, meanie, miney, mo! Get your bags; it’s time to go!”, which sparked a lawsuit by some black passengers. There is no reason to believe the flight attendant had ever heard any version other than the modern “tiger” form. I happen to be old enough to have heard the other version.
The irony of all of this is that the only way to teach people not to use the word “denigrate” or the “Eenie meanie” rhyme is to say the very word we’re not supposed to be saying.
And “country” obviously suggests “redneck”, right? Why is it “more” offensive? Just because you make something up in your head doesn’t make it true.