Adam Holwerda's brain itches.

Shelby Fero who I like and think is very funny and nice posted a thing, which while I was reading it I kept having these thoughts like “i should reblog this and annotate this” so I did that. It’s regarding the whole #CancelColbert thing started by Suey Park from over the weekend where a racist tweet offended someone (duh) and the people who made the tweet (and joke the tweet was based on) had a tough decision to make: apologize or defend the joke

shelbysbutt:

Don’t read this stupid fucking thing I’m already embarrassed I wrote it 

Good god I can’t believe I’m writing a TUMBLR POST about Suey FUCKING Park BUT:

A fucking good method of satirizing something is to blow a parallel concept way out of proportion to highlight how absurd the original thing is. So the fact “Ching Chong Ding Dong” would piss off any normal person nowadays is the whole fucking point of that segment. 

Not exactly a fact - a lot of people, instead of getting pissed off, kind of like it. It makes them laugh, and makes them think it’s ok to laugh. The assumed shared belief (racism was a thing for Asians but now it’s not for whatever reason) is faulty on two fronts: first because the group who laughs at the joke is not necessarily the group who shares that belief; they might just be racist, and second because it’s untrue. Racism was and is a thing for Asians and jokes like this further that racism make it obvious that no real activism for Native Americans is going on here

Also why the hell do white people think Asians somehow escape racism? Does it have anything to do with this?

The rage Suey Park felt seeing that, she’s SUPPOSED to feel. It’s supposed to help her (and me and any rational person who gets why that’s GROSS and WRONG) to relate to and understand that THAT’S how truly offensive it is having a team be called “The Redskins.”

So, to recap: Asians should be exposed to racism against Asians so they can better understand racism (ie, how “truly offensive” racism against Native Americans is compared to the “merely frowned upon” racism they experience all the time) - even though it really just seems like the white people are the ones who don’t understand racism. Like racism can only be truly offensive when it’s about these indigenous people and not these other ones

It helped me kind of finally get it. Granted, it may have been a mistake in using Asians as the parallel example, because we haven’t moved past being racist towards Asian people as a society, but for their joke to work the writers assumed we have.

For their joke to work haha
Their only possible joke

So they maybe misstepped in assuming racism towards a group no longer existed, but they weren’t MOCKING Asian Americans on any level.

The idea that it’s “okay” to make jokes about Asian stereotypes tho

I would assume (as someone who has been in comedy writing rooms) they chose to use Asian stereotypes for the foundation 1. because he has the running joke of an offensive asian stereotype being his mascot (like the REDSKIN MASCOT)

1. I guess there was already a racist tie-in waiting to be made, so good for us? Our racism before just naturally led to our racism now! The opportunity just fell in our lap! Who could have predicted that? Oh wait history

and 2. they prob chose an Asian mascot in the first place because there aren’t many great ways to make fun of white people (which sincerely sucks, and I’m sorry about by the way) and using a group that gets more flagrant hate would’ve felt a bit too cruel.

2. So basically every racist joke is just a joke white people wish they could make about themselves, but you know, there just aren’t that many ways to make fun of us. (aside: Huh?) Sorry, if we want to be racist about someone, it has to be, like…a race. But not like too obvious a race. Like, a race that doesn’t get a lot of “flagrant hate” would be good. Then we won’t have a lot of backlash from making the racist joke in the first place amirite eh eh

So again - a possible misstep on their part for assuming Asians don’t still deal with a lot of awful and cruel shit on the daily, but it was a risk taken in the hopes of shedding light on a bigger problem and a group WAAY more marginalized in America.

Let’s use comedy to shed light on how racist everything is, and not only when it’s about a football team

And it sucks that she received gross hate from people on the internet… but she received gross hate from people *on the internet.* It happens. And it sucks. But it’s not exclusive to her and Colbert didn’t rally fans to do it (he publicly asked people to stop, as well).

Let’s just be clear nobody should get gross hate but it’s probably easier to deal with when you’re a member of the privileged majority benefitting from the system that generates gross hate

Suey Park didn’t tweet ONCE about that fucking awful Redskins charity (that I saw, at least). She’s basic as fuck to me in that she seems opportunistic to the point of detriment.

Also, how does one “opportunistically” start a hashtag? Like how does anyone start a hashtag at all? Like seriously I want to start a hashtag and will pay you if you can tell me how - I think it has something to do with getting a lot of people to agree with you

She’s liberal Nancy Grace with lamer hash tags.

She’s reductionist reactionist Southern white people? No, I think Suey is standing against the idea that her group (or any group, really) should have to be a punchline in order for another group to be talked about

And I can’t believe I even feel like there’s a REASON to write this douchey condescending explanation of satire but everything I read from people was enraging and frankly terrifying to see as a comedian who doesn’t want to fear a mob every time they attempt to take a risk.

I get the fear-based motivation here, but cold hard truth time: at some point people are going to be pissed when white people do jokes at the expense of other races (especially their own). They’re already sort of pissed. Every once in a while they tell you. If you complain about it at that point…I don’t know

Comedy that relies on making one race or other the butt of a joke is not inclusive, and at this point it’s not even edgy. It just reinforces a reality many of us wish wasn’t a reality. There are people saying racist (and mysogynistic, homophobic, transphobic) shit at open mics in every city in the US

What if they all just wrote some jokes?