chinese is just english with an accent

i just got back from the chinese takeout in the commons.  a chinese employee took my order and i said "broccoli with chicken and steamed rice."  she returned a very puzzled, almost freightened expression. then the lady at the register walked over and said to her "cheekin brokli, steam ri."  the girl who took my order seemed to understand perfectly what i wanted.  then the guy behind me ordered "teriyaki chicken."  she gave him the same puzzled expression until the cashier lady once again came over and said "tehyaki cheekin", which she understood. 

its not racist.  it was just an observation

She probably learned english from another china person.

I feel like this is a good place to put the column that my new columnist Ben wrote for tomorrow's paper.


_____

Racism is real. Even now, in 2008, all can agree that racism does indeed exist. After 19 years of soaking in the murky waters of American culture, I've come to a conclusion that racism in America remains a cultural cancer because of one thing: bad jokes.

Comedy in America and abroad is as much an expression of power as it is a form of entertainment. Making fun of someone can imply that the person making the joke has dominance over what he is making the joke about, and it can also imply that the person making fun is doing so with a sense of rebellion against the butt of his joke.

A few good jokes can convince a person to say, do or agree with nearly anything. Unfortunately, a few bad jokes can have the exact same effect. So what does all of this have to do with racism? Here's a joke for you:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get to the other side.

The "Chicken Crossing the Road" joke is nearly as old as jokes themselves. Everyone has heard it and no one thinks it's funny.

Imagine knowing someone who loves this joke so much he tells it over and over again to everyone he knows. Imagine having to hear the same joke about chickens and roads on every TV show and in every movie for the rest of your life. Wouldn't that get kind of annoying?

That being said, I find it absolutely incredible that so many comedians make a living by repeating the same stereotyping, racist jokes with slightly altered punch lines.

I can't understand how the idea of black people loving fried chicken still makes people chuckle.

Not long ago, I was sitting outside on a bench near the Student Union, snacking on a chicken strip, when a friend of mine approached. He looked at me, my hand shoving the strip into my mouth, and smiled, saying, "You know you really make it hard for people to not believe that all black people love chicken." My reply to him was, "Everyone loves chicken, not just black people," while I pointed to the Chick-fil-A bag he was holding.

Good jokes are based on truth, but the best jokes convince an audience that the comedian is actually speaking the truth. The unfortunate thing about stereotypes is that they are only funny if the audience already perceives them to be true. I'm tired of hearing about black people loving chicken. Chicken is served at nearly every restaurant that serves food, and that has nothing to do with race. Everyone loves chicken.

My opinion is not confined to only black stereotypes. All stereotypes are stupid, yet people hear them so much that they start to believe them. The average person hears some untrue joke about Asians not being able to drive and remembers it every time he sees an Asian person in a vehicle. It's a totally false statement, but as that person speeds through a red light he starts to believe that what he heard about Asians is true, and the power of comedy has thoroughly convinced him to believe so.

The key to ending racism and discrimination is more than just trying to create equality between people. People have to actually believe that everyone is equal.

People have to be able to see that everyone eats chicken and that the roads are filled with bad drivers of all races. Racism will cease to exist only when the average person can hear a stereotypical joke and think, "That's not true. I see all sorts of people do that all the time."

Ben sounds like a dull boy.

RoboCop wrote: I have an african friend who craves fried chicken and kool-aid. I love those too. We make fun of my friend about him and his fried chicken and he is fine with it because it is true. Of course he acts whiter than almost every other black person in the school and he admits to that too.

Methinks you missed the entire point.

so just because he doesnt find something funny means no one should find it funny, and that everyone who does find it funny is a bad person?

Linus wrote: Man Bites Dog wrote: I feel like this is a good place to put the column that my new columnist Ben wrote for tomorrow's paper. I love when people use names of other people you don't know in stories, like you're supposed to know who they are.

It wasn't crucial to the point at all, I just decided to point out it wasn't myself who wrote it.

Linus wrote: Plus, shouldn't it be "that my new columnist, Ben, wrote for tomorrow's paper."???

No.

Actually, yes, because his name is non-essential to the completion of the sentence.