Article: Is This Joke Racist?

The occasion is a Bar Mitzvah, a Jewish coming of age ceremony (literally, "one to whom the commandments apply) which marks a 13-year-old boy's transition to adulthood. The person telling the joke is the boy's uncle. The uncle and most, though not all, of the group around him is Jewish. Though not observant, they are happy to have witnessed and participated in the ceremony, pleased with the boy's performance, and proud to be part of the Jewish people.

Is the joke anti-Semitic or racist? We can probably agree that it is not. In this case, although the joke could evoke both positive (cleverness) and negative (stinginess) stereotypes, it is likely that the setting and the spirit in which the joke was told combined to make only the protagonist's cleverness highly salient to the audience, which may not even notice that the joke also evokes some negative stereotypes.

Moreover, even if these negative stereotypes are noticed, they are unlikely to offend anyone in this context. This is because, while we can theoretically be prejudiced against our own racial and/or ethnic group, it is generally assumed that we are aware of our own in-group's strengths and accomplishments. As such, we generally have more freedom to poke fun of (and even criticize) our own group. After all, when we do so, we are also poking fun of ourselves.

The Online Discussion Board:

Now imagine that this same joke, rather than being told, is posted as an online comment in a discussion forum that is being dominated by strong criticism of Israeli military action that has, at times, deteriorated into explicit anti-Semitic statements. Because the online forum allows anonymous participation, we do not know anything about the person making the post.

Is the joke anti-Semitic or racist? Although we don't know anything about the person making the post, given the nature of the discussion (criticism of Israel and Jews), it is the negative stereotypes of the joke's protagonist's that are likely to be salient. As a result, the joke effectively functions to lower the regard that the audience has for the target group (in this case Jews), which is the very definition of racist or, in this case, anti-Semitic humor.

Notice that the intention of the person making the above post is largely irrelevant. To make this point, let's give this person the benefit of the doubt and assume that he did not intend to lower the audience's regard for Jews and is, in fact, genuinely puzzled that his well-intentioned joke is being perceived as anti-Semitic. "I heard a Jewish guy tell this joke at a Bar Mitzvah," he says, "and everyone thought it was great. How can it be anti-Semitic?"

The answer, of course, is that perception is everything...and perception, in this particular case, is determined almost entirely by the context (since the identity and intentions of the joke teller cannot be known).

All this, of course, begs the obvious question:

Should there be room for this kind of humor in our multicultural and multiracial society?

The mic is now open.

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