Is Racism Old News?

I think that there is a tendency for people in North America(and Canada more predominantly) to think that race is an issue of the past. Slavery was a long time ago right? Well although that’s true and we are past more overt and outright racism like slavery and things like extremely segregated schools racism is not as obsolete as one might think. There have been many public issues of racism in the mainstream media like when actor Michael Richards famous for playing Kramer on the 90’s show Seinfeld in a comedy routine made an extremely offensive and racist remark and no one can forget Kanye West’s outburst that “George Bush doesn't care about black people”. Stand up comedy is a genre of TV programming that often touches on issues of racism or use race as the “butt of their jokes” so to speak. Both Russell Peters and Dave Chapelle come to mind as they attempt to use racist humor in their routines to both educate and poke fun at how ridiculous some stereotypes of certain races are.

Recently I came across an episode of the TV show Kenny VS Spenny that pins two friends against each other in outrageous competitions. One episode was entitled “Who Do Black People Like Better” in which the two men got to spend a day with three black men and at the end of the two days the men got to vote about who they liked better: Kenny or Spenny. Kenny and Spenny go two very different routes throughout the competition and the episode touches on some really important issues of racism. Kenny takes the men to a comedy club and lets them all perform stand up comedy routines where they make racist jokes about African American’s. The three men go along with it and at the end Kenny goes on stage and spends a good ten minutes spewing out joke after joke about African Americans. Spenny on the other hand takes the men on an anti racism retreat where they can bond and talk about issues of race to set the record straight. However even though Spenny’s approach seems like it would be a good way to shed some light on the issue of racism he ends of dressing up as a white supremacist as a joke.

I was really shocked that the men didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Some of the jokes were in extremely bad taste and the fact that People still commit hates crimes and people still discriminate so why is it funny or acceptable for people to be depicted in the mass media as overtly being racist and have it be a joke? Racism will always be an issue and I feel like this issue is undermined when comedians continue to make a joke out of it. Yes it may be a less prevalent issue but glorifying racism and making it seem like something funny and acceptable is a horrible message to send to people. I was curious to see what other people’s thoughts were on racist comedians and Google searched it. I found mixed reviews on the subject. A lot of people raised some interesting points that the comedians are just trying to poke fun of the stereotypes in an effort to help people realize just how ridiculous they really are which is a valid point. However there were a lot of people that shared my view that racism is never funny or acceptable. Racism is a touchy subject that I think people avoid at all costs but my question still stands, are comedians who make stereotypical jokes about all races the focus of their comedy routines doing more harm then good? or are they meeting their goals of showing just how stupid and ridiculous the stereotypes really are?