TF is going on in this comment chain? Jokes aren’t jokes, double down on racism or white guilt or even real racism and biases… what a disaster.
this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
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A bunch of morons who never read a history book. Obvious joke about trade and colonization for spices and they're losing their shit
Lemmy is attracting a lot of people with no sense of civility.
Who paid for the spices? If it was the roommate why shouldn’t they move their stuff with them?
You're missing the point. The point is that their roommate was white, and therefore responsible for the actions of every member of their race reaching back for as long as the punchline requires. It's a funny joke, because if you do it with another skin color you are cancelled.
Oh, here I thought it was a history joke in the same vein as saying "My American roommate moved out and took all the oil with him. How do I tell him it's just cooking oil?"
Clearly this is actually a condemnation of the roommate's Inferior White Bloodline and his Ancestral Guilt.
Are we allowed to make jokes about national heritage now, too? Cause I've got some zingers about my old Middle Eastern roommate, but they've been bombing...
Jokes about national heritage are fine - in fact, they're all over this sub.
https://lemmy.world/post/27559507
https://lemmy.world/post/27424779
https://lemmy.world/post/25877958
https://lemmy.world/post/22815483
But simply repeating popular bigotry that people earnestly believe is not a joke, and will not be treated as such.
The downvotes on the comment you answered to tell us a different story though. Ultimately the mods decide, but still
Woah. Ok. So, you have no idea what the term colonizer means, if you think any of those jokes is remotely close to what you posted earlier today.
So, you have no idea what the term colonizer means,
Lord.
So, that's a no.
Coloniser after colonising the place becomes the land-"Lord". Hence the answer
As a white guy who takes spices seriously: hahahaha.
Why are you getting your panties in a bunch?
Yeah, as a partly-white guy, I can be sensitive about "WHITE PEOPLE BAD" comments, but this? It's a history joke. No one actually thinks that there is a secret lust for spices lurking inside of the White Man(tm) that drives him to crimes of passion.
Yep, agree.
I think it works as a joke precisely because it comes out of left field.
No one is expecting to equate some dude who needs to share a room with a powerful and wealthy British Lord from 2 centuries ago, but you would expect the ex-roomates to be sour with each other (hence why they became ex-), so you're kinda of expecting a mildly vindictive jab or two.
If this was early 1900's England, it'd be a case for a "ooooph, too soon bro...", but by now it's fair play on my book.
Lol racism is hilarious!
Mmmm, casual racism.
Edit: All the downvotes are due to white guilt.
I thought comedy was legal again
It is, as long as you only target certain racial groups.
Oh, so you're only allowed to target groups other then the ~~snowflake~~ white man?
I have been told that isn’t a thing here because you can only inappropriately focus on someone’s race if they are part of specific racial groups whoch is somehow not racist.
The real answer is that "white" isn't really a race. It's a socioeconomic in-group that exists to other those who aren't collectively agreed to be a part of it. Over time, a formerly racialized group may achieve "whiteness" via assimilation, like the Irish, Italian, and Jewish populations in America.
There isn't really any race other than the Human one, anything after that is arbitrary fuck-assery to hate on each other.
What you described about whiteness is how fascists view whiteness.
My comment is basically saying the same thing as your first paragraph, just in a more academic way. If it sounds like a fascist take on it, that's only because fascism is built on taking advantage of humanity's inherent in-group/out-group dynamics.
IMO any time you focus on race when it should not be a factor you are being racist. Even if white people weren't a race it's still not ok to other them any more than it is ok to hold similar views for other non-racial groups like Muslims. The hate comes from the same place and the intention is identical.
Trying to argue you cannot be racist against someone on the basis of their race is clownish.
You touched on the point there, although you might argue it's only a semantic difference. If you accept that "white" isn't a race, then definitionally, you cannot be racist against white people. Just like you can't be racist against Muslims, at least on the basis of their religion alone. You can definitely discriminate against those groups, but calling it racism is simply incorrect.
You can also delve into a discussion about the harm done by this kind of joke. The classic metaphor is that you don't blame the bullied kid for making fun of their bullies. There are power imbalances built into our culture, and so pretending that a joke at the expense of white people could ever do the same amount of harm as one at the expense of a racialized group is frankly ridiculous.
The classic metaphor is that you don’t blame the bullied kid for making fun of their bullies
That isn’t what is happening here. What is happening is the bullied kid is bullying people who look like the kid who bullied them. They aren’t targeting the bully. Thus what you are supporting is lashing out at people who aren’t responsible for your mistreatment on the basis of race. There’s a word for it…it will come to me in a minute.
There are power imbalances built into our culture, and so pretending that a joke at the expense of white people could ever do the same amount of harm as one at the expense of a racialized group is frankly ridiculous.
The fact is you can’t say how things impact people who aren’t you. Dismissing this as not being racist is being part of the problem not part of the solution.
My take away from the joke is not "do not roommate with a white man, they will steal your stuff".
My take away from seeing your comments is "just avoid white men at all costs, they are toxic as fuck."
You are making racist comments to a stranger online and it is white men who are toxic?