Over time I’ve culled most of the outright racists from my pool of Facebook friends. Sometimes, though, people post shit like this, intending only to share something they thought funny, failing to see the thuggishness and racism behind the “humor.”
If the message on the sign had been anti-Semitic, my friend never would have posted it — he would have known better. But we see crude anti-Muslim jokes on Facebook all the time (and this one is a mild example). How is it that we understand religious and racial prejudice is wrong when it comes to Jews and African-Americans, but don’t get it that this is the same thing? Are we only capable of learning to get along with each other one religion or race at a time?
I made a snarky comment, to be sure: “Ha ha! The only thing that could possibly be funnier and more welcoming would be to change the sign to ‘Whites only!’”
Some woman I don’t know — a friend of the original poster — came back with this: “@Paul Woodford — bad attitude, dude.”
What can you say to something like that? Here’s what I said: “Oh? What if the sign said ‘no Jews inside’? Would it still be funny? I dare say if you were an American Muslim, you’d have a bad attitude too!”
Her response to that? ”Hope your (sic) having a good day dude … just thought FB was a happy place …”
Right, dudette. Just leave the thugs and racists alone, and the world will be a happier place. Sure, that’ll work.
By the way, what is it with restaurant signs depicting critters serving up their own kind? Apparently I’m not the only one who is creeped out by restaurant animal mascots that offer themselves up to be eaten!
© 2012, Paul Woodford. All rights reserved.
Who said we knew prejudice against Jews and African-Americans was wrong? Some people may know that. In other countries. Possibly in a different galaxy far far away. But America certainly feels as if it’s reverting to an earlier, unglier time.
As for animals offering themselves to be eaten, please see Part II of The Hitchhikers Guide, “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.” And don’t tell me you’ve never read the five-book trilogy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide. Please. If you haven’t, please drop everything you’re doing immediately and go forth and read and laugh yourself silly.
You are right about that, of course, but I don’t write my blog for the mouth-breathers. I like to think I’m carrying on a conversation with a more-evolved crowd. As to the Hitchhiker series, no, I have never read it. The few paragraphs I’ve seen quoted here and there struck me as sophomoric. Probably that was more the fault of the quoters, not the quoted.
Douglas Adams, the man who wrote “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” was a devoted fan of P. G. Wodehouse and wrote the same kind of blithely silly humor. Please don’t tell me you’ve also never read P. G. Wodehouse. Adams’s (apparently we’re now adding the apostrophe to all names ending in “s,” not just the ones of only one syllable) are some of the funniest ever written. In a very quirky way. As in, 42 being the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. If you don’t agree to read some of both, I’ll start showering you with my old paperbacks of Wodehouse (yes, of course it’s pronounced Woodhouse, otherwise it wouldn’t be any fun) hilarity.
BTW, David and I are currently hooked on Rita Rudner. You’ve probably seen her in LV. We’re so hooked, that I keep the DVD in the DVD player so we turn it on more or less instantly. We’re particularly fond of her catch line: “What’s it like in there?”