Bad Jokes & Ebonics

[Gary Elshaw]

Thank you grip. I mean that very sincerely. I've felt very ashamed,
confused and angry all afternoon. I sincerely meant the apology to Bonnie
and John earlier, but being accused of being a racist left me feeling
nauseous to tell the truth. I wasn't trying to pass this off as a 'funny'
or even mildly humourous joke. I thought that may have been clear by the
title of the post.

Until recently i had been reluctant to post anything to the list, due to
the en masse flamings that seemed to constitute the daily posts of the
list. Everyone appeared to be asked which side they wished to defend in the
conflict. I guess i just happened to subscribe at just the wrong time. And
now, instead of folks asking me directly why i posted the item, they would
appear to be scrutinising the possible motivations as to why i posted it.

'The Joke' had been passed on to me, (as these things usually are these
days) from a friend of a friend of a friend. It had been bounced around so
many isp's that it took up half a page of various international legal
firm's, addresses &C.
Recently the P-List had a discussion of ebonics. I thought it might be
interesting to show how far reaching/corrupted ebonics has been taken. New
Zealand is a very small country, as probably most of you know. When I see
things like this make it here, for some reason i believe it IS news.
Unfortunately i just didn't manage to make myself clear of my intentions.
After considering things I think i'll make this the last post.

Upon reflection it was my own insecurity of wanting to contribute to the
list, and feeling i wasn't able to before, that brought about this
misguided compulsion to send something. Unfortunately this happened to be
the aforementioned 'Joke.' To make a further confession, I am not a racist,
have never been a racist, and, I hope, shall never be one. Much to the
chagrin of my Father, who is a racist. In '94 I did a great deal of work
writing for the U.N. on the international year of indigenous people. Work i
have yet to live down with him. Funny the way life works.

Thank you, and apologies again.

Gary



> Is there any need to spread this crap any further.

No need, I suppose. It's not terribly relevant to Pynchon. But then
a lot of things here are not.

> Doesn't anyone understand that ebonices "jokes" are hate speech?

I suppose that might be the understanding of some folks. And in some
cases it surely is. But we joke about all sorts of things without any
hatred. Why assume it's hatred here? Just because I joke about attorneys
doesn't mean...bad example...let me starts again... I loved my late
mother-in-law dearly. But I also laughed at many mother-in-law jokes. In
fact I once - only once! - introduced my mother to someone as my wife's
mother-in-law.

> I mean, yeah, if you feel a great unbridled net-mediated freedom to be
> a public racist, then that's one thing.

Simple logic flaw. All racists make ebonics jokes is not equivalent to
all ebonics jokes are authored and distributed by racists.

> But I think that some folks just don't know that this kind of stuff
> offends--really.

No doubt it does offend some. So?

Really, Bonnie. If you commented that the prayer wasn't very funny, I'd
agree with you. But to claim racial hatred as a motivation for writing
it or simply passing it on is a bit too much without knowing the people
involved.

grip