Tosh.0: Is It Racist?

For those of you who watch Tosh.0, you will understand the title. For those of you who have never seen it, viewers beware. Daniel Tosh is a comedian who focuses on the -isms we learned about to make his audiences laugh. His humor consists on jokes about African-American males jumping higher, dancing better and being more well-endowed than their White brethren. Tosh's justification for poking fun at African-Americans is, "Oh, I have black friends." Unfortunately, this is an excuse used by many who engage in racial humor. I think there is a difference between racial humor and racism, but the line dividing the two is razor thin. I make wise-crack jokes to my friends who are another race, and we have had lengthy conversations about what is acceptable racial humor. All of the friends that I have had these conversations with have all said the same thing, "Would it bother you if I said it to you?" I have caught myself numerous times using this method, and after thinking about it, I realized that it would have bothered me. I am fortunate to have a racially diverse group of close friends, and very rarely, if ever, do we offend each other with our racially charged jokes. In our time, racial humor is prevalent in more places than we think. Movies, news broadcasts, Internet chatter and even in sports. Film director and actor, Mel Brooks, wrote the book on making racism funny and in a demented way, acceptable. If you have seen "Blazing Saddles," you know what I am talking about. I personally believe that if we can laugh at the stereotypes placed upon us, then we are making great strides to making racism a thing of the past. In order to make sure my writing never contains racial undertones, I should try to stop using racial humor in my conversations.

I was driving through Bunkie, La. and came across this sign hung on a restaurant door. Underneath it "CROSED ON MONDAY" was scribbled in sharpie on a piece of paper.