[hidden]it would be fun to hack giorgio :D, hehe.., just kidding :)[/hidden]

@arshan
I think the jokes depend on context. I tell off-color jokes all the time about everyone (though I can’t think of any good Persian jokes!), and I agree that it brings people together, but the audience is people who I know do not take seriously the underlying prejudice and who wouldn’t think that I took it seriously. On a semi-public forum like this one, there is no way to know who is reading it or who they’ll take it. That’s why I act differently here.

Also, I think there’s a difference between (to use a different example) a bunch of white people, in a mostly white bar in the US, telling a black joke, and a black person telling the same joke in the same place.

On the other hand, South Park says outrageous things and yet they seem to bring people together, so it’s not so simple. Anyone for Chef’s Chocolate Salty Balls?

@guanxi:
I completely understand where you’re coming from. I also hate when the Persians take my money. I kid, I kid!

"2) How you would feel about similar Persian jokes, "

for every jew joke we make, there’s 3 iranian/terrorist jokes, even though persians have a very shitty resume for representing terrorism. stereotypes are often wrong and stupid, and that’s what we’re implicitly playing with.

one of the running gags on my soccer team (which is about half black) is that if i were black i’d be the leading scorer and a captain, and that their racial advantage is too much for me to overcome. do you think these types of jokes divides us, or help brings us together? i know that on the micro scale they do the latter, but i guess you could argue that on the macro sale they do the former, but i’d have to see some hard science.

i’m not a sociologist or psychologist so i guess i can’t authoritatively say if comments like ours are a net benefit or detrimnet to society’s progress in diminishing hate, but i guess i have found my own opinion.

one thing we can agree on, samy’s a schlimiel, oy vey!

And these ideas have been such a curse on humanity — is there a worse one? — how many have died or suffered, for nothing. The time to act and change things is now, one blog comment at a time. Please consider helping out!

@Giorgio
I understand that you might take it that way, but when you publish something you can’t control how others will understand it. Many will see it this way: ‘Here, a little anti-semitism is so common that it’s generally understood; so acceptable that it’s said in passing jokes; and we care so little about offending Jewish people that we don’t hesitate’.

How about replacing the offending words with "[Arshan]" — if samy really cares about the offending phrase, it definitely shouldn’t be published — or just take down his note and paraphrase it.

@arshan
"we’re both of persian descent, so the jew jokes are par for the course, and, for the record, sans malice. most brown people are anti-zionist rather than anti-semitic, in reality"

It’s sad for me to hear that "jew jokes" are so normal (and I should say, the Persians I know wouldn’t agree). Have you considered these questions?: 1) How it makes someone feel to learn that they are stereotyped so much that it’s a common joke? 2) How you would feel about similar Persian jokes, for example if Persians were stereotyped as thieves (and I’m just picking something random; I don’t think that and am not aware that it’s a stereotype), and you heard someone say (about someone a non-Persian thief) ‘that persian took my money’? 3) The consequences of these prejudices and stereotypes: How much suffering has it caused, from Germany to Japan to the U.S. (to Italy), from Iran to their Sunni neighbors to Israel, from Lahore to Mumbai?

It’s too bad that these ideas result in such problems. Unlike the other causes of war and suffering, like the distribution of natural resources, this one is in our power to stop.

Thanks for considering my concerns!

That said, the mood of his text seems quite playful and parodic of the “mad scientist” stereotype: just like I don’t think he’s really mad at me or seeking revenge, I don’t believe he really despise Hebrews, but just throwing in a parody making fun of antisemitism and antisemitic nutbags.

Regarding corrections, I’m afraid planets fetch a static copy of articles, therefore even if I edited something, updated content wouldn’t propagate.