…because he’s in his hometown of Edison, NJ. Get it? EDISON IS THE HOME OF A LOT OF INDIAN IMMIGRANTS! And they have overrun the township, what with their red dots, and zany, octopus-like deities and of course, their cows! Indians worship cows! And Edison is full of Indians! So there are cows in Edison, and the cows take dumps, and this unfunny columnist named Joel Stein really stepped in it, because the nasty brown shit (and by nasty brown shit, I mean “Indian”) is everywhere! The brown shit is unavoidable! ISN’T THAT HILARIOUS? WHY AREN’T YOU LAUGHING? Don’t you get it? That paragraph is humorous! I have bludgeoned you about the head with my clever humor! And if you don’t “get” it, you are excessively thin-skinned, like…like…an eggshell plaintiff!
What’s that you say, Desis? You weren’t impressed with Stein’s comedic stylings? Why…if you’re outraged, then that’s GREAT because it means Stein’s humor is EDGY. That’s what great comics do! They challenge you! They inspire your eyebrows to raise up like they’re furry, arched extras in a Petey Pablo video!
You didn’t think it was funny, at all? Well, chin up, dear Mutineers. Neither did I.
And that’s because, it wasn’t.
When I first ventured online today, I had a dozen tweets, emails and FB messages waiting for me. They all contained the same link to TIME magazine, a publication I adored as a child. My interest? Piqued. I started to read.
Let me tell you what I liked about the essay which all of you wanted me to read, first: the title. I loved the B-52s in high school and I love lifting blog titles from song titles. Clearly, Stein was referencing “Private Idaho“, which was a bit before my time (released: 1980) and to my INDIAN ears, a bit annoying. I preferred a single from a full decade later– “Deadbeat Club“. I used to put it on a lot of my mix tapes. Sigh.
Now that we got THAT out of the way, let me tell you what I disliked about Stein’s “meditation” on immigration. See what I did there? Huh? Huh? INDIAN STUFF, AGAIN!
Every. Thing. Else.
Let’s get started, shall we? But first, to really do Mr. Stein justice, I’m going to light some incense, play a “Jai Ho” remix, and nosh on some curry– but daintily! I don’t want to stain my exotic silk costume, which I bought in…of all places…Edison. What are the odds, right? Oh, wait…according to TIME magazine, the odds are very good that my Indian garb is from Edison. The whole place is infested with Patels. Did I mention there’s a dot on my forehead? I’m a dothead! Wheee! Oh, but I am getting ahead of myself (I am waggling my head as I type that. If you’re reading this, switch to an “Apu” voice, would you? Thanks, you’re a doll. I mean, you’re an Aishwarya!)
I am very much in favor of immigration everywhere in the U.S. except Edison, N.J. The mostly white suburban town I left when I graduated from high school in 1989 — the town that was called Menlo Park when Thomas Alva Edison set up shop there and was later renamed in his honor — has become home to one of the biggest Indian communities in the U.S., as familiar to people in India as how to instruct stupid Americans to reboot their Internet routers.
HAHAHA! Stein just called Americans “stupid”. Doing this protects him from any accusations of racism or bias, because he made fun of himself! And he said he was pro-immigration, so he’s nice, too. See how that works? What are you saying? It DIDN’T work? Oh.
Hmmm.
Maybe that’s because it was made by an American! Ooooh, BURN! Like a VINDALOO! And you can’t get mad at me, because I’m an American, too! Huzzah for humor insurance!> My town is totally unfamiliar to me. The Pizza Hut where my busboy friends stole pies for our drunken parties is now an Indian sweets shop with a completely inappropriate roof. The A&P I shoplifted from is now an Indian grocery. The multiplex where we snuck into R-rated movies now shows only Bollywood films and serves samosas. The Italian restaurant that my friends stole cash from as waiters is now Moghul, one of the most famous Indian restaurants in the country. There is an entire generation of white children in Edison who have nowhere to learn crime.
Aww, more self-deprecation! It almost makes you miss the utterly bizarre reference to the mithai place’s “inappropriate roof”. How, may I ask, is a roof ever inappropriate? Did it forget to wear its knickers? Does it have the F-bomb painted on it? Better yet, is the roof fornicating with something? Perhaps a chimney? Oh, yeah…you’re a nasty roof, aren’t you? You’re bad. You need to be punished.
Or wait– did Stein mean inappropriate like that inebriated White parent who showed up to my conservative private school and slurred about what he’d like to do to all of us young girls in our pleated skirts? If so, that’s a TERRIBLE roof. A dangerous one, even. Also, you can’t get mad at me for sharing that anecdote which makes Whites look bad, because I was in it. Or it was funny. Or something. What? “Humor” is Stein’s excuse. He’s American, possibly Jewish, and he finds himself far too clever– just like me! STOP BEING THIN-SKINNED, EGGSHELL PLAINTIFF.
I called James W. Hughes, policy-school dean at Rutgers University, who explained that Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 immigration law raised immigration caps for non-European countries. LBJ apparently had some weird relationship with Asians in which he liked both inviting them over and going over to Asia to kill them.
I’ll be damned. This hack was actually funny for a change. I’m going to agree with my colleague Amardeep and declare that this bit works. If only the ENTIRE ARTICLE worked as well. Also? EDISON IS FULL OF DOT-HEADED NERDS WHO WORSHIP PENISES. What? I was worried you’d forget. You suffered through that Stein piece, you’re probably used to being bludgeoned with such sentiments every 30 seconds. I’m just trying to be considerate, y’all. Why do you have to be so Indian about everything? Why can’t you be dishonest and White, and not change everything, and not take over the businesses where I learned to be a petty thief and…and…stuff? NOTHING SHOULD EVER CHANGE, DAMNIT. IT’S JOEL STEIN’S WORLD AND WE’RE ALL JUST LIVING IN IT.
After the law passed, when I was a kid, a few engineers and doctors from Gujarat moved to Edison because of its proximity to AT&T, good schools and reasonably priced, if slightly deteriorating, post-WW II housing. For a while, we assumed all Indians were geniuses. Then, in the 1980s, the doctors and engineers brought over their merchant cousins, and we were no longer so sure about the genius thing. In the 1990s, the not-as-brilliant merchants brought their even-less-bright cousins, and we started to understand why India is so damn poor.
Sorry, Mutineers– I’m going to have to ask you to stop reading this blog and look away for a moment. I love you too much to let you watch what happens next. Tearing someone a new arsehole is a brutal, violent act and you shouldn’t have to see that. Now go. Study some maths while I take care of this, nah? Acha, beta.
Removes hoop earrings
Which are 22K
Smears vaseline on face
Gets to stompin’ in stiletto heels
“YEAH, you accidentally racist, hypocritical JERK! You pee sitting DOWN in MY HOUSE! And it IS my house! I’m Indian! THAT’S WHAT WE DO, MF! WE BUY HOUSES! WITH RESPONSIBLE MORTGAGES! WHICH WE PAY OFF EARLY! BIATCH!”
Oh, sorry, little ones. Didn’t know you were already back from mastering “Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos”. Drink some Bornevita, kozhandai. What’s that? You want Horlicks, instead? Why are you laughing? Because it sounds like “whore-licks”? Really? Well, at least that’s funnier than the pap Stein wrote. Now nom this Parle-G and get out ma face. Mama’s got WORK to do! That and the next part is ugly. I know. AGAIN.
Eventually, there were enough Indians in Edison to change the culture. At which point my townsfolk started calling the new Edisonians “dot heads.” One kid I knew in high school drove down an Indian-dense street yelling for its residents to “go home to India.” In retrospect, I question just how good our schools were if “dot heads” was the best racist insult we could come up with for a group of people whose gods have multiple arms and an elephant nose.
Joel,
though I’ve pretended to give you an episiotomy in this post, I want to say that I actually don’t care enough to mind that you exist. I could have overlooked this entire fustercluck if you hadn’t composed the paragraph above.
Why? Why did you write that?
Do you think it’s funny when someone talks about negotiating a great deal and they exclaim, “I jewed them down to almost nothing!” If you do think that’s funny, you’re pathetic because you know what? I find “Jewed” offensive. And I constantly call it out, just like in high school, when I’d wish people “Happy Holidays” whenever I was out shopping with my Jewish best friend, who wilted a little inwardly at the absent-minded “Merry Christmas”‘ wished at two young girls who, truthfully, looked more like a Hindu and a Muslim than an Indian Christian and a Persian Jew.
I don’t like the term “Jewed” because it’s ugly. It trades in the worst stereotypes and assumptions about an entire group of people who don’t deserve to be disrespected and diminished by what is, at best, lazy phrasing and at worst, anti-Semitic poison, casually slipped in conversations like a roofie in our collective drink. Joel, I believe in the dignity of all people. I understand that words are powerful and that stereotypes are the preferred weapon of the uninformed and uncreative as well as the malicious and bigoted.
You “question” the quality of Edison’s schools because you think “Dot Head” was a mediocre epithet? Would “dotbusters” have been more suitable? Yeah, I know, wrong place. They slaughtered a “Dot Head” for the crime of being Indian over in Jersey City, not your precious, quondam white Edison.
I don’t give a shit.
The biggest problem I have with your inane, imbecilic piece is that it isn’t funny. Not even close to it.
I don’t think you are a racist. I truly don’t. But I do think that you don’t get it. That you fancy yourself to be far more “edgy” and “hilarious” than you actually are, because this…this TIME article is not funny. And this paragraph is exactly why I maintain such a position. You failed.
Isn’t all comedy offensive? Sure, a lot of it is. See: Chappelle show. I laughed four separate times during that consummately offensive video. Do you know what the difference between your “race com” and Dave’s is? Dave is funny. He is deft, artful, smart but most of all– he is Funny.
Your neighborhood racists’ inability to devise a better slur “for a group of people whose gods have multiple arms and an elephant nose” is neither funny, nor edgy. It’s disrespectful, ignorant and not even entirely accurate. What about a person with two arms and a prominent nose who lights a menorah? Because India has those, too. What thrilling invective should be hurled their way?
Unlike some of my friends in the 1980s, I liked a lot of things about the way my town changed: far better restaurants, friends dorky enough to play Dungeons & Dragons with me, restaurant owners who didn’t card us because all white people look old. But sometime after I left, the town became a maze of charmless Indian strip malls and housing developments. Whenever I go back, I feel what people in Arizona talk about: a sense of loss and anomie and disbelief that anyone can eat food that spicy.
This paragraph started off with so much promise; relatively speaking, that means you hadn’t stepped in shit up to your ankle. Then, you had to go there. Arizona, there. And no one even noticed your bizarre suggestion that “all white people look old”, because you had invoked the one state where your humor would play well.
So, the immigrants came and ruined everything, did they? With their “charmless” businesses which helped prop up Edison’s economy, even as they denied the township’s children opportunities to be junior thieves. I forgot to ask– what tribe are you a part of? You couldn’t possibly be the descendant of immigrants if you hold such exclusionary, retrograde views, so I’m assuming you are one of the only real Americans, because if you’re not an indigenous person, that would make you a giant, flaming hypocrite. And if you were an indigenous person and you held these views, well, I’d understand you a bit more but I’d still think you were a dick.
But enough about you, let’s talk about– you. Your piece, and specifically, those housing developments. Ugh. Who wants those. Better to have urban prairie, like Detroit or something. Also, you forgot to mention “curry”. Because all Indian houses smell like it, so surely these residential developments which you regret all exist under a puff of garam masala, yes? No? Head waggle, so? The whole reason the food is spicy is because of that curry cloud of powdered spice, wafting overhead, a reversal of the filth which orbits little Pig Pen’s feet.
You feel a “sense of loss” that your neighborhood isn’t a shrine to your memories of it? Join the damned club, accidental racist. The rest of us just accept that such evolution is a part of reality; we understand it, we don’t blame immigrants for it. And finally, what were you thinking, writing a column on Immigration and invoking “Arizona” within it, with your sympathies? Oh, right. Edgy.
Unlike previous waves of immigrants, who couldn’t fly home or Skype with relatives, Edison’s first Indian generation didn’t quickly assimilate (and give their kids Western names). But if you look at the current Facebook photos of students at my old high school, J.P. Stevens, which would be very creepy of you, you’ll see that, while the population seems at least half Indian, a lot of them look like the Italian Guidos I grew up with in the 1980s: gold chains, gelled hair, unbuttoned shirts. In fact, they are called Guindians. Their assimilation is so wonderfully American that if the Statue of Liberty could shed a tear, she would. Because of the amount of cologne they wear.
Okay, at this point, it’s 1am and I’m exhausted.
What the blood clot? Skype has been around for all of seven years. My parents arrived over thirty years before that. They didn’t have Skype but they did give their kids “Western” names because the “West” doesn’t have a monopoly on Christian nomenclature, you fucking fuck. And plenty of those immigrants who came in the late 60s DID assimilate, probably because they were 35 years ahead of Skype, but that’s irrelevant. You have TWO ethnic groups to insult now. The sad thing is, the whole “Guindian” phenomenon merits discussion and could spawn a whole other post, one which explores identity and emulation and NOT bad, racist attempts at wit.
And speaking of the “R”-bomb:
-despite your (apparently) being a member of a “minority” group
-just because you are not usually, actively racist
-even if it wasn’t your intention to sound so racist
-though you may have an Indian friend or three, who kissed your ass and boot-licked their way through some compliment of your…work…
IT WAS RACIST.
It was also ignorant, small-minded, cringe-inducing, embarrassing (for you) and classist. So please, in the future, just…desist.
I’ll let some of my beloved friends and readers school you as to how and why you stepped in it.
Erstwhile guest blogger (2006!) Maitri let Stein HAVE IT, in a missive to me. See?
Even if this were a simple observation on Joel Stein’s part of how his town has changed economically through the decades, he could have done it a bit differently. Case in point: “In retrospect, I question just how good our schools were if ‘dot heads’ was the best racist insult we could come up with for a group of people whose gods have multiple arms and an elephant nose.” Like these attributes of Hindu gods are insult-worthy. With this, Stein gave up the protection of self-deprecation and crossed that line. Why is it still so easy to do so?
Time Magazine ought to know better.
Said Brian, who was the FIRST of 26 of you to contact me about this:
To write an article in a publication such as TIME, that highlighted epithets (which the author himself thought weren’t creative or offensive enough) used to degrade children growing up in a country already feeling different is in bad taste.
Mimosa wrote:
Stein…starts to delineate how his town has fallen from a supposed “good old days” nostalgia, a place that was allegedly superior to the present. The associations made with Indians – their food, culture, and other ethnic practices – are framed as inferior to the ways of the gloried past. Racism is the belief that “race” itself determines human traits and capabilities, and that this quality is what pre-dates what is superior vs. inferior. By focusing on the way these “invaders” have deteriorated in the interim (strip malls filled with Indian grocery stores, movie theaters featuring only Bollywood films, gods and goddesses with their multiple arms and elephant noses), he takes a position of dominance, a position that there is only one narrative to be spun out of this hometown. Such a position is allied with the “raghead” comments stemming from the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial race, whereby GOP primary candidate Nikki Haley and President Obama were attacked for their supposed religious affiliations (nevermind that the rhetoric was completely flawed and ignorant).
But really, what bothers me about this piece, why it didn’t strike me as satire, is that it seems to assume that there really is a dominant narrative out there, i.e. that “white” culture is where it’s at. Assimilation is not an option, it’s a requirement for these rude new aliens – but of course, that assimilation is on the dominant narratives terms.
So…if any of your friends missed this hullabaloo in the Sepia orchard, just send them Mimosa’s thoughts. That way we deprive this fucker of page views. Our outrage has made this…uh…”story”…both the “Most Read” and “Most Emailed” links on TIME.com. Ugh. We are rewarding his stupidity.
Mihir buzzed this:
…so basically he is saying Indians are ok if they fit into his neat little white upper middle class template, and maybe stay under, say 20% of the population. In other words he’s ok with Oak Brook or perhaps Naperville but hates Devon Avenue. It’s unfortunate that he believed that Edison would forever be like 1989…the race/class-infused nostalgia just seems immature to me for a supposedly educated writer.
Of course he’s saying that. There are even Desis who say that. They just have the good manners and education to know that they are elitist douchebags and they keep that shit on lock. They don’t clutter up a once venerable magazine with their snobbery. Also? EDISON IS LIKE, FULL OF INDIANS! And you thought I’d forget…
Said Aditi, whose family, like mine, has subscribed to TIME for years:
Reading it made me feel defensive and frustrated at how mocking Indians has become such an easy target–the SNL skit a few months ago, Text ‘n’ Talk for PCS, Sanjeev the web designer in some insurance– without requiring anything to be actually funny. Just mock the accent, our immigrant ambitions and our gods….the Arizona reference was straight up Ridiculous.
And lest you think this is a bunch of minorities whining about getting their feelings hurt, read this, from Rachel Kipp, an editor in Philadelphia.
“If it’s satire, but nobody laughs, then it’s not satire.”
Maybe since Rachel isn’t Indian, Joel will value her words more! I know one thing– don’t ever change, Rachel. No, seriously, don’t. Because if you do, Joel Stein will write a bad column about it, for TIME.
My friend RR did an excellent job of conveying how many of us felt after reading this, via my FB profile:
I have to wonder, if a similar article was written about Latinos or African Americans if TIME would have the balls to publish it? If they did, wouldn’t all hell break lose? Wouldn’t this be something that NPR and everyone else would be talking about? Is it because Indians are too small a minority and too “passive ” to actually fight back? Some how I feel like the nerdy Indian kid in high school all over again.
Meanwhile, over on Twitter, AngryBrownGirl drew my attention to the next phase of this drama:
Did you guys check out Joel’s FB post? Apparently not expecting such a reaction? Give me a break!
It’s true; his Facebook page was updated with a status message which…wasn’t helpful. See for yourself:
Didn’t meant to insult Indians with my column this week. Also stupidly assumed their emails would follow that Gandhi non-violence thing.
Someone in the bunker thought that was so amusing, they felt sorry for Stein. I just gloated over the “stupid”, since his entire column was. Also? Edison. Indians. Lots of. Oy, I’m tired.
I’ll let Maitri fire off some parting shots for me, because she’s a hot geologist with a way with words and her ire isn’t just aimed at Stein– she’s gunning for some of you. Watch out now:
Yet, still, hitherto, even at this point, I can dismiss the whole article as noise. What really cooks me here is not Stein’s provincialism or even how easy it still is to use Indians as the butt of jokes. It’s the Indian-Americans, the ones who keep their heads down, “adjust” and don’t make waves, who will tell us not to be so sensitive and to shrug it off. “Let them say what they want. We should not internalize these things and let them bother us. Grow a sense of humor.” Because of their being doormats, it is easy for the Steins of the world to give ink to the Wholly Unnecessary. They make it so easy to do so. No more. I’m an American. The residents of Edison have been Americans for longer than Stein’s had a column. They don’t need this. Fuck you if you CAN take a “joke.”
Word. This born-American citizen is over and out. Let the wild rumpus begin.
hypocritically call into the picture his being a Jew, a white and what not
Uh, the point is STEIN is hypocritical for being a part of a minority group which was barely welcome or accepted until fairly recently and turning around and dishing the same bs on brown people. It’s not hypocritical for all of us to point out exactly what he is. The former raises eyebrows, the latter is just a statement of fact.
Naijaman #94: Without the Super Saver Liquor Locker, where would all the uncles get crates of Kingfisher/Taj Mahal on the DL while their wives were out grocery shopping 🙂
While the “satire” came off sounding more like a bigoted rant than anything witty, the thing I’m surprised most about is that TIME ran this. As others above pointed out, the magazine would never run such a piece about most other minorities. I don’t think Stein’s intent was to be racist; the only thing he’s guilty of is being straight up unfunny.
Good point, but with one difference. Stein no longer lives in Edison – he traded in his Jersey roots to live among the beautiful people of Southern CA. If he was that concerned about Edison losing its charm, he should have stayed. It’s a bit much to hear him lament that the Indians who moved in don’t share certain attributes of the people who left.
You want satire? Two words – Larry David. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” can be summed up like this- Brooklyn-born Jew cannot stand the pretensions of wealthy West Coast Jews, and runs into one comedic caper after another when he runs afoul of some unwritten code of manners.
It’s always fascinating to me, how gender affects things. If a guy calls someone out, that’s entertaining. If a woman does it, she’s hysterical, emotional, angry and needs “to chill”. Our daughters are “chill” enough. There’s something to be said for raising hell. And for understanding that different folks like different posts.
Sepia Mutiny’s own comments policy suggest why Stein’s remarks will be tolerated. Now we can kid ourselves and claim the column wasn’t funny (I showed it to a few Indian and non-Indians alike and they chuckled even if they afterwards said it was offensive); of course we’ll say it’s unfunny because we’re the butt of the joke. I’m not excusing Stein. But I’m saying maybe we should be a little more circumspect about legitimizing bigotry when it comes in the form of humor. Last comment and unrelated is- do we ever get tired of fellow Indian apologists? These people pride themselves on claiming some offense wasn’t actually offensive; a white person could stick a fork up their as and call them a “sand nigger” and they would say deny the racist nature of the incident and pride themselves on their broad-mindedness. Let us call these sell-outs by their name and understand that masquerading their cowardice as a form of high-mindedness isn’t fooling anyone.
Right…except he wasn’t funny. Not even close. That paragraph above the commenting box doesn’t provide blanket protection for any attempt at humor; it warns you to bring your A-game or get deleted. Stein didn’t bring his…and he should have been.
The ironic think is that he rants about sterotypes, but he himself is a jewish humorist.
Larry David, he is not.
You want to see how racial humor is done?
Listen to Louis CK, Bill Burr or even Howard Stern. All white guys, who can say any racial epithet in the book and everyone will laugh at it.
An open letter to Time:
I have fairly good reading comprehension. However, I was particularly perplexed by Joel Stein’s misnamed “Awesome Column.” I had to read this column three times and I still don’t really get the point of it, despite its composition at the sixth grade reading level.
I have hesitated to point out this column online, because I do not want to increase any web traffic to such Neanderthal views, in much the same way I ignore Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, hoping and praying that one day they will wither on the vine from inattention. Mr. Stein’s article stands out in so many ways I find myself compelled to respond to its outright mean-spirited bigotry.
This particular column perhaps is explained as an attempt at humor. The horrifying embrace of crude stereotypes, racial slurs (“dotheads”), and downright insults (“…and we started to understand why India is so damn poor”) absolutely derail this goal. The tone is so dark he sabotages the possibility that any jokes can be enjoyed. Rereading this article makes it only worse. Reading it aloud had me choking on some of the sentences.
Full disclosure: I am not brown. Not close. I am so white, I am pink. And I am old, like the author (maybe a wee bit older…I graduated high school in 1984). We both went to high school and college at a time when one was overtly encouraged to use a language and a level of discourse that sought to negotiate a wonderfully complex society with individuals from different backgrounds, races, and religions. The possibility of mocking someone’s religion was, in a time not too long ago, considered appalling and should have set him or his editors aghast. This is the line that demonstrates such phenomenal insensitivity: “…if ‘dot heads’ was the best racist insult we could come up with for a group of people whose gods have multiple arms and an elephant nose…” During my recitation of this part of the essay, my eyes searched ahead on the page, saw this particular line and my usually pink complexion burned beet red, initially from embarrassment, and then anger. It was viscerally painful to read this line aloud to an audience.
Now is not the time to decide to loosen one’s discipline in discourses of race, religion, and ethnicity. Anti-asian violence is clearly evident in Western society, whether in my home town of Philadelphia, or in my wife’s hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Hate groups nationally are on the rise, as noted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a watch group for such activities. With the gift of so many talented immigrants, one should be particularly welcoming, yet this article only promotes barriers and alienation.
Time’s editors need to be castigated too. A columnist may be permitted lots of leeway in the content of his columns, but one does not have to print these columns. An article with such awkward, crude, tone-deaf attempts at humor would have been rejected from my middle school newspaper, so certainly a Time editor can guide this author’s column to pollute only some electronic “delete” bin in his email account.
This should be Mr. Stein’s last column in Time.
I can recommend any of a group of writers (see sepiamutiny.com) with better composition, humor, and disciplined writing skills who can fill his space in the back of the magazine. Their articles are often intelligent (frequently above the sixth grade reading level), and quite humorous. I am not required to reread their work, nor am I left pondering the IQ of the author or tastelessness of his editors.
Better writing is “out there.”
Humor is subjective; you obviously don’t find it funny. But you also take offense to it and that might explain why (as do I). The broader point is — I don’t think we can rely on a defense of accusing a satirist of being unfunny in order to combat bigotry. In fact, even the defense is so weak as to suggest, “Your bigotry was fine; but we need a funnier punchline; the latter is the problem.” So clearly bigots need to test-drive their humor in front of a few focus groups, tighten up the delivery, and eventually the bigotry will become acceptable.
The problem with accepting the white majority’s rationale that “it’s okay if it’s funny” is that often jokes can be funny making the majority laugh uproariously while the minority cringes. Sure there are jokes at the expense of white people, but when you’re in a dominant position, how much easier is it to laugh at yourself. When we talk amongst ourselves, perhaps there is a different standard. In broader society and in mixed company, there needs to be a higher standard. See the reason we don’t consider this is we don’t want to be humorless scolds. That’s fine. There’s a consequence for us wanting desperately to part of the cool crowd and we’ve seen it. It’s being lampooned in front of America and us in the corner offering a hollow, pathetic “not funny” counter. What we saw was typical Stein snark (I and others find Stein to be hilarious, this column included; there’s a reason for his success). It was funny — and that is the problem we have to confront and not deny out of existence.
The pass to humor can pose problems, but maybe part of the idea is there is something about humor that signals the ideas presented are of a certain kind. For example a person who is part of a group may laugh at a joke because they are part of the group. Humor is not only subjective, its a complex social act.
PT- the reason many of us South Asians are claiming its inoffensive, as you correctly observed, is twofold. The first is that many of us here in America are engineers and scientists; while bright in our field of work, we are often narrow-minded in matters ourside of it — and often don’t understand sociological phenomenon. So you will have an IIT Grad exonerating Time for insulting, racial stereotypes because he neither understands the cumulative effect of demeaning racial characterizations in the press nor has the humility to understand that he is unaware. The second reason is that we have cultivated a fashionable kind of cowardice. It manifests itself as agreeing with insulting behavior by whites so as to separate onesself from the rest of the Indians, appear objective/neutral, but also because we have been taught to avoid confrontation. The easiest way to do that is a cop-out where you deny the offense even happened. Hope this helps.
I didn’t post about this because I didn’t find it funny; I don’t matter that much. I posted about it because dozens of you felt that way, too. I checked my reaction against close to 100 others before I even sat down to write this; that’s why it took me four hours instead of my usual 60 minutes. I take this shit seriously; I have a platform and I’m not going to wield it indiscriminately. I’m mindful of its reach and humbly grateful for my access to it. I take my responsibility here seriously enough that I didn’t post about this immediately. I waited, ALL day. Check the timestamp. I meditated. I mulled. Moreover, my reaction remained the same: it’s not funny.
I plainly stated the one line that was funny, so it’s not as if I was squinching my eyes shut and covering my ears, trilling “LA LA LA CAN’T HEAR YOU! WANT TO RAGE!” If I had to describe the ratio of reactions I’ve seen to it online, it would be something like 85% unfunny.
I think the broader point is that satire is incredibly difficult, as is comedy– and if you’re going to tackle the third rail of race, you’d BETTER be funny or you’re going to sound like an asshole or worse, a racist when you fail. See: above. I’m not advocating focus groups for bigots to test their humor (?!), I’m pointing out that he failed at funny. Stein is a big boy. He knows damned well that this is the risk one takes with such material.
I’m not sure how “it’s okay if it’s funny” became racialized. I cited Dave Chappelle as an example of offensive, racially tinged humor that was successful and it’s part of the commenting guidelines for this, a brown site.
It’s great if you find Stein hilarious and think his body of work is brilliant. All are not same. 🙂 I don’t find him hilarious and I am very, very specific about where I’m aiming that opinion: one column in TIME. It wasn’t funny and THAT is the problem. And calling it out for being a humor fail is nowhere near denying its existence.
Thanks Anna, liked reading your response and the others you quoted.
You are right. I didn’t want to get into this because it can go on forever. One of the reasons we laugh is because we are comfortable enough to do so. The very same racial joke that blacks reacted to with anger 50 years ago may be retold today word for word, and may draw laughter. Is it because blacks are more secure with their position? The mere fact that the butt of a joke, in this case a racial minority, can laugh at a particular joke suggests that the joke refers to subjects that they find acceptable to mock. In that sense, perhaps the minority group laughing at a joke at it’s expense IS the green light that it’s acceptable — because even we can laugh at jokes at our thriftiness for example. The problem with this litmus test is that I know about half the Indian-Americans I know will laugh at anything that insults them. In fact they will themselves volunteer countless anecdotes to non-Indians about how ridiculous we are. I don’t believe this avenue of thought is profitable; I think it better we back up and make a stand that bigotry will be confronted whether or not it is packaged as a joke, riddle, limerick, song, rhetorical question, or what have you.
It’s a humor fail because you got a bunch of angry emails from other desis like ourselves? LOL. You must be kidding me. What you saw was outrage, and not a set of critiques from the writers of McSweeney’s. Fine, let’s keep telling Joel Stein “he’s not funny” as if we’re the authorities on comedy. I’m sure that will work really well. Are we going to school him on designing setups and building punchlines. As much as I like Mr. Show and Curb your Enthusiasm, I have an old book of jokes from Milton Berle that I can dust off- maybe we can send THAT to him.
We are going down a dead end.
It’s important to complain – write to:
Joel Stein – thejoelstein@yahoo.com
Editor of Time – letters@time.com
Sepia – you posted this valuable article which shows up as the top hit when I just googled “Joel Stein Racist” – I think you should post a follow up prominently publicizing how readers can make their voices heard, including this info.
I think Mr. Stein is going to need 2x as much, or more, TP as a normal person would given the episiotomy you just gave him Anna.
Mr. Stein, if you are reading this, for your next article, please try to write something funny about your bacon-loving mohel and his integration into American society.
“I sincerely can not understand why intelligent South Asians such as the ones who take the time to read and craft considerate responses on this blog would think that it is “OK” to condone a piece such as this in a nationally-run, mainstream publication. Joel Stein did not write this piece as sophisticated commentary on the evolution of a model minority. It is his job create sardonic humor for TIME magazine. He took the easy way out and picked a group that would give him a pass when he stepped over the line. Joel Stein isn’t stupid. He knows he stepped over the line and did it for two reasons… 1) South Asians wouldn’t complain, really 2) He really hates the way his home town has changed.
If you think this is “UNOFFENSIVE”, I promise you that there will be many “UNOFFENSIVE” pieces such as this in the future in TIME and other mainstream media outlets”
COSIGN!
i agree with abhi. i usually like joel stine but he is not all that complex usually. this article was bit confusing, and yes complex. the humor was not easy to get at. but it is not an insult, not racist. any desi could have written the same. i love desis, proud to be one, blablah, but i hate visiting desified NJ. people are RUDE! and i mean RUDE. but many ethnic low market business people are rude. until they become more americanized.which may never happen.
and yes india is poor. he might have connected to it badly but what’s to get insulted by that?
Oh look, Indians have been made fun off. …….
Get a life people. You have just been made fun off, not a big deal. Move on.
Well, at least that explodes the stereotype of Indians as people who win spelling bees. 🙂
I promised myself I would only leave one comment on this thread but could not resist.
People are entitled to their opinions but they are not entitled to their own facts 🙂
FACT 1: This article was not racist. Period. Stein is a well known and widely read humorist (though his fans may be few). On top of that he had an editor at Time who reviewed this before publication. Anybody that is arguing that this was intended to be racist in the same way that SC’s Jake Knotts made the bigoted “raghead” comment about Nikki Haley or George Allen made his “Macaca” comment needs an adjustment in perspective and terminology. Did the article contain crude stereotypes? Hell yes. That was sort of the whole point!
FACT2: The article was not successful as a humor piece. Aside from the Bear in the Ice Cream truck gag I thought the movie Borat sucked balls (maybe literally in one scene). Many of you probably thought it was funny as all hell. Some people love Stephen Colbert but some of his victims, unfamiliar with his shtick think he’s actually serious and don’t get that he is poking fun at his own character. I grinned at some parts of Stein’s article because I understood what he was attempting to do. This often happens in humor pieces though. Some subset of people don’t get the joke. It doesn’t matter if the joke was poorly written and delivered (as most likely in this case) or because the person reading the joke just didn’t get it the first time (maybe it was too sophisticated for the reader or was read too fast like everything on the internet). At first read their is offense taken. Then someone points out, “dude it was just a joke. See evidence A, B, and C that clearly indicate it isn’t what you thought.” At this point the offended party screams even louder. They have to double down because otherwise they’d have to admit they weren’t sophisticated enough to see the joke (even a horribly botched one). Yes, I realize that use of the word “sophistication” is going to get me flamed in subsequent comments 🙂
FACT3: People always conflate “stereotyping,” “bigotry,” and “racism.” Via the internet: Racism = The belief that one race (or races) is inherently superior or inferior to others.
Bigotry = intolerance of any opinions differing from ones own or intolerant of people of different ethnicity, race, or class.
Stereotype = An oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. Often assumes that one or a few speak for the whole.
So really? All you commenters on SM, Facebook and Twitter? Are you really claiming to me that humor writer Stein is a racist?? Really? He used crude stereotypes to deliver a joke (his clear intent) that failed. A racist that does not make.
OPINION1: I think the real thing causing issue to some subset of commenters is their sense of hurt Indian Nationalism. He called India “poor.” Oh no. Racist should be fired.
I know I will get flamed. Bring it 🙂
Oh gosh. This would be the blog version of blowing one’s wad early. Why not wait for real racism so we get taken seriously? There is plenty of real racism, bigotry and bias in the U.S. to battle.
I’ve read many columns of Joel Stine’s so I understand his writing style and understood the article to be satire. Had some funny momements and maybe some questionable ones too…but overall wasn’t offended at all.
What I am offended by is the immature response by Anna above. In a country founded by freedom of expression, I am tired of the “shutup” mentality that has grown out of the younger generations in the US. If you don’t agree with someone, can’t you just spell that out intelligently instead of some childish rant? Why do we have to pull his columns from the magazine? Its an “editorial” – an opinion – not fact.
We have grown to be overly sensative in this country, and not just among South Asians. Discussion only fosters growth. Censorship fosters nothing.
YES!
He’s saying White is better than Indian. Plain and simple. He may be self-deprecating, he may say that there are some stupid white people too (the ones that came up w/ the names dot-head). But according to your internet definition, TOTALLY.
NewYorker, You could have made your point without being personal. You take away greatly from your own point by the words you chose.
Abhi – I stand corrected! I’ve reposted my post removing some of my personal language…..
I’ve read many columns of Joel Stine’s so I understand his writing style and understood the article to be satire. Had some funny moments and maybe some questionable ones too…but overall wasn’t offended at all.
In a country founded by freedom of expression, I am tired of the “shutup” mentality that has grown out of the younger generations in the US. If you don’t agree with someone, can’t you just spell that out intelligently and discuss? Why do we have to pull his columns from the magazine? Its an “editorial” – an opinion – not fact.
We have grown to be overly sensative in this country, and not just among South Asians. Discussion only fosters growth. Censorship fosters nothing.
You may sound like a racist if you fail – that DOESN’T make you one! If you acknowledge that this was an attempt at satire, then you have to acknowledgge that he isn’t a racist.
The article was almost the complete opposite of sophistication. That said, probably not racist, given in our society its unlikely the intention was to be so completely racist as the characture. That’s kind of the issue, its so unsophisticated in its way, the supposed satire is in a negated. It’s like trying to paint like Picasso to illustrate the horror of war and coming up with a picture is Nelson from the Simpsons laughing at a guy with a bullet wound
“OPINION1: I think the real thing causing issue to some subset of commenters is their sense of hurt Indian Nationalism. He called India “poor.” Oh no. Racist should be fired.”
Abhi,
I don’t think that’s what’s irking people; the problem is with how he equates poverty with stupidity. To me, the implication was that we are poor because most of us are stupid.
Honestly, my initial reaction to the article was utter bafflement. I just did not get what point he was trying to make.
When I first read the article I thought I got it. Thought, “oh it’s kinda funny”. But as I read further, the tone of the article made me uneasy. I’d heard this type of racism before when I was a child growing up in Canada. Throughout the article Stein suggests that some type of Indian immigrants are better than others (meaning the recent ones are not of the high quality as the earlier, professional immigrants). Wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt I looked at his facebook page and the comments from his “friends”. There were many offensive comments from the “superior” East Coast brats who conveyed the “my daddy’s a stockbroker billionaire” attitude and are part of the pedigree of private Universities. And there were a couple of Indian origin people who did the “yes Massa” prostrations by declaring that the article was funny and they weren’t offended.
My question is: why did TIME print the article? Time magazine has always had the history of purposely affecting public opinion and policy from it’s origins (Henry Luce).
However I take solace in the fact that the rest of America hates the Joel Stein’s & his privileged East Coast friends too. Just feel sad for the misguided Indian origis who are sucking up to him. I say: please look in the mirror because you’re brown and you’re spineless.
So are you implying I am a “yes Massa” type then? That’s rich. Cue the circular firing squad.
I read that part of the article completely differently. I thought it was more of him as a child only seeing rich Indians and yet hearing that India was poor. He only got to experience that when blue-collar worker types came over in the 90’s and beyond. Obviously, India has even poorer people.
Leaving aside funny/unfunny, racist/not racist – can anyone say it was well written? For that matter, do any of Stein’s columns rise above freshman level? A number of years ago, he wrote a buffonish column wondering what the big deal was over honoring vets, and complained about the traffic tie-ups caused by Memorial Day parade. When he was asked whether a) he knew any veterans personally or b) was ever stuck in traffic due to a Memorial Day parade, he answered no to both. From his point of view, he just needed to write something – he did not have to have any truth to it. If that is the case, he should not be carried in news magazines.
By contrast, and this is going way back, in 2001 Jonah Goldberg wrote a clumsy attempt at humor after the Gujarat earthquake in his column on the National Review website. In his next column, he apologized, saying that what seemed funny at the time was horribly not funny, and this was pointed out to him by other NR staffers. It comes down to a matter of either standing by what you write, or knowing you screwed up an man up to it. If Stein’s behavior in the past is any guide, he will walk around with a “Was it something I said?” expression on his face, cash his Time paycheck, while some folks here are concerned that Indians will develop a reputation for lacking a sense of humor.
Having read (and re-read) Mr. Stein’s article a couple of times and Anna’s response let me ask a few questions to all you folks who think she needs to take a “chill pill.”
Can you see Time publishing an article that jokes about Hitler’s ethic cleansing complete with swastikas for illustrations? While Mr. Stein doesn’t go as far as suggesting that, in a future world it might be OK to extend his “joke” to say Indians who immigrate but don’t assimilate be “cleansed”.
Mr. Stein – why don’t you get Time to publish something funny about your bacon-loving mohel who family escaped from Auschwitz, but found out his wife married the Iranian and converted to a Nazi?
Why is it OK to joke about some topics but not others?
Jun Choi, a former mayor of Edison, is not pleased:
“When Joel contacted me… I talked with him at length about Indian American entrepreneurs, innovators and their positive contributions… since he was looking to write about his hometown and Thomas Alva Edison. While I respect his right to express his views and try to be funny, I was disappointed that the article turned out to be distasteful and offensive to both Indian Americans and my hometown of Edison.”
I’m definitely that type, though my master serves me. But the power shiifts once the bill arrives. Rich indeed.
This is perhaps an unfair characterization. These commenters seem upset by his implication that India is poor because Indians are unintelligent. I guess the following statement is superfluous, but…India is poor today largely because of more than a century of occupation and colonization by the British. Of course it’s possible that India would be poor even in the counterfactual scenario where the British never entered the country.
Abhi,
If you get flamed, it’s not for disagreement with what you wrote, but rather that you attempted to dumb down the debate.
Your idea of a fact is to state an unsubstantiated opinion followed by stating authoritatively “Period.”? That’s not my definition of a fact. He is a humorist and a real-life editor at Time reviewed it – therefore it is not bigoted? Now THIS is a joke, right? As far as the other content, I’ll explain below how crude stereotypes are exactly the problem.
It doesn’t matter whether the column was “successful” as a humor piece. We can argue till we’re blue in the face whether or not ANY piece of comedy is in fact funny; as a subjective matter, spending too much time on this is a fool’s errand (just as debating which in fact was the best period of SNL, etc.). Your dissertation of humor is irrelevant to the Stein piece. It is not an issue whether or not someone “gets” the joke. We are not dealing with layered or complex satire here. A simple insinuation that the majority of Indians are so stupid as to bring on the poverty they are mired in needn’t require much explanation. Your write-up was the same, standard, tired defense that any bigotry if practiced through humor is acceptable.
It is inessential to play a game of semantics here. When Michael Richards yelled the N word, that wouldn’t necessarily state a belief that one race is superior to another. It was nonetheless racist. When Stein makes the claim that the stupidity of Indians is why they are impoverished, if that’s not an assertion of white, Western intelligence being superior to another race (Indians), I’m not sure what is. Crude stereotypes ARE in fact a primary vehicle for racism as well as bigotry.
This misses the mark and is not what people are finding fault with. India is a poor country. Some would argue that has a great deal to do with colonialism (review the percentage of India as a fraction of world GDP before and after the British, for example). However, few would argue it stems from the inherent stupidity of its people, as Stein claims.
As I said earlier, we ought to be a little more circumspect about legitimizing bigotry when it comes in the form of humor. We don’t want to be humorless scolds. If we play dumb entirely however to bigotry (however packaged in humor), the result is being lampooned in front of America and us in the corner offering a hollow, pathetic “not funny” counter. What we saw was typical Stein snark (I and others find Stein to be hilarious, this column included; there’s a reason for his success). It was funny — and bigoted – and that is the problem we have to address.
I agree with Maitri and Anna. I wasn’t raised in the US so I have absolutely no idea about what it feels to read a piece like this when some of these things being satirized in the article may have been said to people in real life. For people who find this funny, more power to you. I can’t stand Russel Peters’ humor as I think it is lazy and I agree with the author of this post that the article is not funny.
And VC, I really don’t think the answer is to respond to one person’s ignorance with ignorance.
FACT 1: This article was not racist. Period abhi, ironically, this ‘fact’ was preceded by your comment that people cannot make up their personal set of facts. his intent to not be racist may be a fact (and only one that the author knows or can confirm), but whether or not the article was racist is still highly up to debate. in fact, i’m not even sure a conclusion can be made on this – do you mean that the article cannot be perceived as racist? because otherwise, i am not sure that one can come to the conclusion that, as a fact, this article was not, or was, racist – e.g., based on what did you come up with this ‘fact’? that statement seems far more like an opinion than a fact.
racist intent or not, the comment that has been repeated by mutineers throughout this thread is one thought that struck me throughout reading his article – would this article be as acceptable as ‘humour’ if indians were replaced as the subject with another group – say jews, or african-americans, or latinos? and, more importantly, would time have been ‘strong’ enough to publish it? (my other thought was about native americans, but that’s a whole different issue)
i like racist humour as much as the next person, but have to agree with ANNA and SM’s comment policy – when it’s funny, and also not meant with true racist intent – which is partly why i am OK with a dave chappelle making jokes – they are SO outrageous and politically incorrect, that you know they have to have been meant as a joke (or at least with no ill will). unfortunately, that tone, whether or not intended, was not present in joel stein’s article – which is why i cannot say for certain that this article did not reflect him as a racist. perhaps it really IS because he a terrible writer and was unable to convey a sufficient level of humour to put this content out of the realm of racism. but he failed, and now i’m just left with the thought that: joel stein is (maybe) a racist.
but i DID laugh at that LBJ comment
THANK YOU. I wrote to Time and let them know what I thought. You have the right frame of mind. We can do this comment thread argument forever and it won’t accomplish anything. Given the range of responses, I doubt we as a community will get our act together soon. We are a “soft target” for the likes of Metro PCS for a reason. We are accomodationists. We don’t understand how demeaning language like the kind Stein used against our kind hurts us in society. We wish to avoid confrontation by denying an offense has taken place. Or we notice the offensive stereotypes but its supposedly okay because it is “satire”, a term which people use freely but apparently don’t know its meaning. We want to laugh off the hurtful language and get back to our game of bridge. Apparently the only time we have the presence of mind to know something is unacceptable is when it’s so transparent such as the “macaca” moment. Pretend it never happened or that it doesn’t matter. We get lost in the nature of the argument and waste time criticizing the style of Joel Stein’s column (or praising it), or criticizing its humor content (or praising it) – all sideshows to the basic fact that he insulted us as a bunch of stupid dark-skinned people that don’t assimilate .
The notion that bigotry is acceptable if it’s funny is a baseless and arbitrary standard. I realize it’s conventional wisdom, which is why I distrust it even more so.
Let’s all tell jokes that drop the N word and if we’re all chuckling, it’s all good. Idiotic.
I’m actually glad Stein’s column came along so we could see just how f*cking stupid this “rule” is.
George Carlin explained this a long time ago – it is all about context.
“There’s a different group to get pissed off at you in this country for everything your not supposed to say. Can’t say Nigger, Boogie, Jig, Jigaboo, Skinhead, Moolimoolinyon, Schvatzit, Junglebunny. Greaser, Greaseball, Dago, Guinea, Whop, Ginzo, Kike, Zebe, Heed, Yid, Mocky, Himie, Mick, Donkey, Turkey, Limey, Frog. Zip, Zipperhead, Squarehead, Crout, Hiney, Jerry, Hun, Slope, Slopehead, Chink, Gook. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those words in and of themselves. Their only words. It’s the context that counts. It’s the user. It’s the intention behind the words that makes them good or bad. The words are completely neutral. The words are innocent. I get tired of people talking about bad words and bad language. Bullshit! It’s the context that makes them good or bad. The context. That makes them good or bad. For instance, you take the word “Nigger.” There is absolutely nothing wrong with the word “Nigger” in and of itself. It’s the racist asshole who’s using it that you ought to be concerned about. We don’t mind when Richard Pryer or Eddie Murphy say it. Why? Because we know they’re not racist. Their Niggers! Context. Context. We don’t mind their context because we know they’re black. Hey, I know I’m whitey, the blue-eyed devil, paddy-o, fay gray boy, honkey, mother-fucker myself. Don’t bother my ass. Their only words. You can’t be afraid of words that speak the truth, even if it’s an unpleasant truth, like the fact that there’s a bigot and a racist in every living room on every street corner in this country.”
In the context of a weekly newsmagazine, does Stein’s column make any sense?
I’m in between Abhi and Anna (to set the poles of the discussion). I can certainly sympathize with the author’s lament for a changed neighbourhood (change can suck, especially for memories or matters that you hold dear. And no, not all change is automatically good or necesarily neutral). Sure, it would be nice to have a poignant meditation (!) on how you “can’t go home again” but Stein is a humour writer, and he’s going to filter through that lens. Many may find his output unhumorous, but others respond from the funnybone. My own humour tends towards the appreciation of quality trash-talking and the slam against a religion whose gods have an elephant nose made me laugh out loud–because, yes, really if you are going to target Indians/Hindus there is a lot more material to work with to come up with some choice ethnic slurs. Accordingly, the “dot-head” insult does seem to reflect poorly on the intellectual capabilities of those using it. It’s a double-burn. I liked the wry observation about Guindians, to show that the players may change but the song remains the same (kind of a repudiation of the suggestion/fear that there won’t be “assimilation”–in the end Jersey will win. Although, to blow his mind, perhaps someone should suggest that perhaps the Guidos of yore were just channelling aspects of Bollywood). And I liked the comments where he pointed out that he was in fact, part of “the problem” with his own contribution to migration patterns and the effect on the neighbourhood. So, I can certainly see some basis for the suggestion that he was pulling a Colbert.
However, overall, the article did leave a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed to me that at some point, the writer was having just a bit too much fun and was just a bit too comfortable with the concept. Satire became narrative. The particularly jarring items were the references to ” knowing why India was so poor” and the references to Arizona (even that would have been fine if he’d also referenced how previous denizens of Edison must have reacted to influxes of Italians etc). Now maybe it’s just his clumsiness as a writer (Colbert makes it look so damn easy) but still, if you can’t bring your A game to this topic, it’s best to keep silent and let people assume you’re an idiot than open your mouth and confirm it (that’s right–I referenced Twain. But, I’m still keeping my nonassimilated name!). In addition, while the Venn diagrams of funny and offensive can and often do intersect, I tend to skew more towards offended when I sense that the author doesn’t apply the same brush to all potential targets. If someone can show me Stein’s equivalent take down of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn(PLENTY of material, including a massive influx of people in a short time, to work with there), I’ll be a lot more comfortable. I do think there is some merit to the suggestion that Stein was comfortable with the topic because he knew that Indians were a socially acceptable target (and TIME seems to support him on that point).
Regardless, as I appreciate quality trash-talking, I thought Anna’s response was well played, even if I am not fully on board with her position.
I think the best way to help the healing process will be to have Stein accompany someone from this site to the IndoJew bowl.
different people can see totally different things sincerely. so this is not the sort of thing that can be resolved by “facts.” i was not offended, nor did i think it was funny. it just seemed really confusing to me. as KXB noted, it was time. i am not up on pop culture so i was vague on who stein was, and was curious about the data on reduced educational achievement among edison’s indians over the generations 🙂
and that is exactly why comments like 121 are problematic as they totally undermine the other point of view.
He started out in Entertainment Weekly, and to quote Jenelle Riley over at Back Stage Blog, he is the kind of gut that fails upwards (think Harry Crane on “Mad Men”).
He’s just not funny. If choosing ethnicity and nationality as the raw material for your humor gets you slapped with the ‘racist’ tag, it’s merely a penalty for being a terrible humorist or rather a talentless hack with pretensions exceeding the limits of one’s imagination. “Racist” is a harsh charge but if it means that you simply get another job, or you get more pageviews and more work (like Stein will), then it’s specific to statement, a/v recording, blog post, etc. I’ve read a few of his other articles for Time and they are mostly bland–with little humor, of the clumsy racial variety or otherwise, or wit. The ‘damage’ from the charge is isolated.
As to whether this constitutes, ‘crying wolf,’ I would remind the leveler of this charge that the big scary wolf murdered not only the sheep but the young shepherd as well–as a confirmed cynic I can safely say that this is the ‘cism of nightmares and not reality. There is no useful contrast to be highlighted between Stein’s, “Gotcha! You thought I was your Other-loving, liberal, conservative-flaming friend” humor fail and physical or material losses resulting from discrimination, attack, etc because they are apples and oranges. The former is experienced and reported frequently by those who produce/consume prose in any medium, and the latter infrequently by anyone unfortunate enough to be a target. This is largely a function of volume. There is no cosmic judge Judy heaping scorn on those who, by accident of birth/skillset/aptitude/disposition/interest, happen to be the prose people and see more of that than anything else.
Did i laugh or grin while reading his column? No. Did I laugh and grin while reading this? Yes. But I was not saying, “you go girl,” I was just laughing. I have no beef with Stein only with the torturous crawl of time during which I am forced to wait for the invisible hand to deal with crap like the column in question.
KXB,
You’re right that context matters. However, it’s not the context of the medium used – it being a newsmagazine – that is most relevant. Were it a leaflet, or an email newsletter, or an ed/op in the newspaper, it would hardly matter. The context, I believe, that does matter is that the person saying it was non-Indian. He is white (Jewish). The only comment of his that I will focus on (because it’s too easy for us to get distracted by the whole piece) is the one that implied that Indian stupidity explains the poverty of India. The context of a white person saying this, in my view, is the one we need to focus on. Carlin and Chris Rock successfully did racial humor because their jokes had a grain of truth to them. Building a punchline on a lie- that Indians are stupid – when in fact India’s poverty owes to a host of factors, most notably British colonialism (which Noam Chomsky and others have written about), is the essence the problem. The good kind of racial humor informs us; we laugh a knowing laugh because it is something it reflects an insight into our personas or our community that strikes us as true; we leave with greater self-awareness. The bad kind of racial humor, IMO, is when it perpetuates negative stereotypes based on a simplistic falsehood – the kind Stein employed. My two cents.
There’s a lack of maliciousness in the Chappelle video linked from the article, where the stereotypes are played upon (American blacks as gangsters, Wayne Brady as lovable and family friendly (perhaps even the antithesis of the “stereotypical American black gangsta” type), but, as with most of Chappelle’s work, the people are shown to be just people. That’s not there in Stein’s article. He makes fun of Americans and of Indians, but as stereotypes, never humanizing either. Instead of combating racism by sending up racist stereotypes, as Chappelle does, he just tries to keep an even ledger, making fun of groups into which he falls as often as he makes fun of those into which he doesn’t. But, as the comedian on Seinfeld who had converted to Judaism so that he could make fun of Jewish people made pretty clear, and as many comedians who base their acts on making racist/religionist jokes about their own group also illustrate, the humor is, at best, half discomforting and half funny even when stated by a native member of that group, and even more insulting (thought probably just as classless) when stated by a nonmember.
Stein’s article isn’t simply racist because it’s not funny. Just as this “Sepia Mutiny” article doesn’t just come off as mildly sanctimonious because, say, there’s nothing especially humorous about her one-girl struggle to educate the obnoxiously obtuse and insensitive “Merry Christmas” wishers – it simply seems mildly sanctimonious because it is, in fact, mildly sanctimonious.
Do we really think “Merry Christmas” wishers are prejudiced, proselytizing jerks? Maybe they could benefit from some PC, religional-variety training, but let’s be honest – the comments are most probably well-intentioned.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case in Stein’s article. What he says smacks of, well, not racism, because I doubt the presence of Bobby Jindal next door would elicit these remarks from him. It’s really nationalism and religionism. I think, at base, it’s culturism. He’s uncomfortable with Indian immigrants who are act differently than his remembered neighbors did, thus changing the culture of the area. As with all prejudice, there’s the smell of fear about it. Or, if not outright fear, then discomfort. I know, because I’m racist and sexist and sexual-preferencist and everything else. I have prejudged views about other races just as I do about my own. Is anyone above some degree of that? But when that manifests itself in a way where the fear is palpable; the comments (no matter how funny anyone finds them) unsettling and discomforting; and the goal not to show, not even a human similarity, but just equal worth; then it’s not fun and not something I’d expect to find in a national publication that I respected.