Racism: some thoughts.

Hello all, a potentially controversial topic today, but I think that at heart I am a genuinely tolerant person - keep that in mind. I'm also smug.
 
I play 3-on-3 basketball for a team. There are four, sometimes five, of us tied into the team, and I am the only 'white' guy. A friend from the team is a very big, very black man who I won't name. For the record, he calls me whitey, and jokes about my cracker ass, inability to jump, and the fact that on a sunny day you can see my internal organs. Meanwhile I joke that he can't be seen in dark rooms and can't eat brownies because it would be cannibalism. It's classy stuff, but we're friends, and it's well-meaning. It's also not the only thing about each other that we mock, he mocks my pretention and laziness, I make fun of his addiction to videogames and sugar, as well as his height (6 foot 8!). To me, he's a friend first, a giant second, a black guy third.

We were out drinking and had a series of serious discussions. Eventually we breached the topic of race, and surprisingly, it led to quite an intelligent debate. We started off by mentioning that greek ahtlete who made a joke about the number of Africans on the Greek Olympic team. From what I understand, she said that with so many Africans there, the 'west nile' mosquitos would be having home-cooked food. West nile Virus is now common in Greece (apparently). She was sent home as a result of this joke. It's a terrible joke, not funny, but she didn't deserve to be sent home for that.  there are African people on the West Nile, why should an admittance of this be so controversial? Should we be sending athletes home for a bad-taste joke?

 I argue that it's controversial because any mention of black people is instantly regarded as 'racist.' This attitude, so commonly seen in twitter outrages, is racist in itself. Had she tweeted a joke about white people, or 'regular' Greeks, would it have caused a similar amount of fuss? No. This attitude is not only racist, but exteremly worrying, it is at very least, a sign of inequality. Surely 'regular' Greeks and 'African' Greeks have to be treated equally, and that should include being able to say a stupid joke about them without it necessarily being made into 'racism'. Surely for a multicultural society to thrive, there has to be some give or take? (I understand that West Nile Virus is dangerous, and deadly, and that may be part of the decision, but the race aspect was what we were discussing, so move on.)

This is a point that my friend made. Every once in a while, he says, someone (usually white) will jump into 'protect' him from harmless ribbing from a friend (see above for examples). He claims that this intervention is racism. I think he has a point. Although they are well-meaning, my friend argues, at the heart of the matter is the fact that these people think that black people are different and require protection from harmless abuse in a way that a 'whitey' wouldn't. Being mocked and joking with friends is something which everyone does. At heart is the thought that black people are so different that they can't handle gentle ribbing, and that they can't think of their own comebacks to get even. The end result is that people think that black people, in this case, my friend, needs special protection because he is different. That's racism, or at least unenlightened.

   He also notes that in cases where he was genuinely racially abused, these same people are to blame. He argues that British people tend to be inherently racist, I don't know about that, but the situation seems to be a lot more perillous than it should be. Britain has had generations to integrate, and it still seems fraught with tension. Certainly the situation is genereally perillous enough to prevent people from joking about the race of another, and that is a genuine obstacle to multiculturalism and tolerance.

  Please note that there is a huge difference between joking with your friends and genuine racist abuse. Either way, it's trouble, if you want equality, you have to treat everyone as equal, you must accept that every race is as flawed, as ugly, as pathetic as every other. You can't put some races on a pedestal in terms of protection, and you can't treate every comment as racist, as that is a racist attitude itself. As soon as we start segmenting certain people as 'off limits' for comedy, comments and even criticisims, then we are driving a barrier between us and a socially inclusive, cohesive country.

Other topics we discussed: why is it that lesbians are the only sexuality to constantly remind you of it? My friend thinks it's because a lot of them are fickle - His sister was an 'experimental' lesbian for a while, but is now engaged and pregnant - what we both agreed on is that we know lesbians who constantly mention their sexuality to everyone, and we both know different lesbians who have changed their names since coming out. Gays are proud, and remain proud, but I have never met one who has changed his name after coming out, and I used to live in Newtown, Australia. We both agreed that you get the feeling that lesbians need to keep doing this because they are either unsure of themselves, or thnk that everyone wants to hear. [N.B. I kind of agree with myself in the sober light of day, but I do need to write this a little better].

Hope everyone is well, thanks for reading.
 P

Addendum: as if to emphasise my point, a Swiss soccer player has been kicked out of his Olympics team for using twitter to calling the Korean opposition 'Mongoloids'. I think we can all agree that this is racial abuse. Why, oh why, do these idiots use twitter anyway? it's nothing but trouble.