[ SECRET POST #2343 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2343 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[not a repeat, was too big before]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 055 secrets from Secret Submission Post #335.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

No, it's really not the same thing. Personally, I find it tasteless to mock Cumberbatch's name as well, but his is legitimately an odd-sounding name in the English language. People who are used to English naming conventions understand that it is unusual. Whereas with most ethnic names that get mocked, it only happens because they are foreign. The ethnic issue is the driving factor: they could be perfectly ordinary "Jones" and "Smith" in their native languages but they're funny to you anyway because they are foreign.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Oh god.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

And if they want to make fun of my name because it sounds ridiculous to them, that's fine.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Your inability to accept that just because an experience is fine for you doesn't mean that it is for others is exactly why you're having such a hard time dealing with being called out.

And maybe you really were attacked. I know how extreme people can get on the Internet, and that's not right. But if that's the case, you're letting their negativity overwhelm the issue and you're not even really engaging with me right now. I have not attacked you, so I hope you don't feel that way.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I'm not the OP of this thread, and I already knew that particular bit of wordplay will bother some people, so I don't use it.

It just offends my sense of order and consistency that something can be either funny or offensive depending on the ethnicity of who it's referring to. I recognize that this is often considered to be the case and adjust my behavior accordingly, but it grates like nails on a chalkboard. It should be either always funny or always offensive.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Something can be both funny and offensive, and when it's the case it's our responsibility to weigh what's more important: a funny joke or someone's feelings potentially being hurt. I have no doubt the "This is funny!" reaction in people in the face of a foreign name is genuine, but just because we can't help the feeling doesn't mean we should broadcast it, if it could hurt others.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

But does the fact that the name is foreign make a difference? For that matter, in the U.S., how do you define foreign? Is the same name different levels of acceptable as a joke subject depending on how long the person's family has lived in the U.S.?

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

In this case, "foreign" refers to something's status of being outside one's ethnic culture. This remains true for a country like the US where many different ethnic cultures coexist, with varying lengths of history.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

So "Shyamalamadingdong" would be acceptable coming from someone of ethnically Indian background? What about half Indian background?

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Do white people have some kind of special power where their feelings can't be hurt? Because this would only effect someone on an individual basis. Saying Shamalamadingdong does NOTHING negative or positive towards Indian Americans. Does it effect him on an individual basis? No a comment on the Internet does not.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Firstly, I already acknowledged that mocking Cumberbatch is itself tasteless. But it is not racially-driven.

How can you presume to speak for Indian Americans as whole, though? How can you be sure no person of Indian descent has ever witnessed the mockery of Shyamalan and not been hurt, relating it to their personal experience with racial humor? Making someone feel bad about their ethnic identity counts as harm.

And I would even argue that it does affect Shyamalan, or at least his public image. Condoning the mockery turns him into an acceptable target for racial mockery, in place of accurate criticism of his work.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

So the what if it isn't racially driven? That somehow makes it better?!?!?!

"Not only did Cumberbatch have to follow an animal act, but Letterman, who began by referring to Star Trek as Star Wars, asked his guest—a ­veteran of twenty movies, including ­Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and War Horse—if he was new to major motion pictures. (The actor, being the polite, Harrow-­educated Brit that he is, jumped in to save his host: “This major? Yes!”) I tell Cumberbatch that, given Letterman’s cluelessness, I was surprised there weren’t the usual efforts to wring a laugh from his name.

“Well, since he couldn’t even say it,” says the actor. “At one point, before I came on, he announced me as ‘Benedict Cumber… ,’ and his voice sort of trailed off. My friends said, ‘What the fuck was that? It was like his batteries ran out.’ But that’s the sort of thing that’s been happening here, where I’m not as well known,” he continues. “It’s strange to be 36 and still explaining the weirdness of my name.”

” — http://www.vulture.com/2013/05/benedict-cumberbatch-in-star-trek.html"

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

No, it makes it not racially driven, which is what the topic at hand is about: racially-driven humor. I already said that, to me, it was still offensive.

And please don't try to deflect. You started this thread not because you were upset people don't find Cumberbatch mockery as offensive, you did it because you were called out for making a racist joke. You then argued that these two types of mockery are the same thing. And now, by acknowledging my point that one is racially-driven and the other isn't, you should concede that they really are not the same.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

I was a different anon.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

+1

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Firstly, I already acknowledged that mocking Cumberbatch is itself tasteless.
But it is not racially-driven.
You're kidding right? Half the reason people make fun of Benedict Cumberbatch's name is because it sounds so incredibly English. Like it's the most English name out there. Sure, it sounds silly. But it sounds silly because it so snooty English.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm, if re-examine your point, I may revise my earlier opinion and note that, if it is primarily Americans mocking Cumberbatch because his name is oh-so-British, then there may in fact be an ethnic factor behind the mockery. Which makes it even more tasteless.

People would probably still argue that, as white British men like Cumberbatch are nowhere near considered a marginalized group, the mockery is still not the same thing.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

And that makes you a bigot.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Saying Shamalamadingdong does NOTHING negative or positive towards Indian Americans.

But it does. Mocking someone's culture sets them apart from you. It makes it easier for others to discount and distance themselves from that culture, too because teeheehee isn't it so weird and hilarious?

Why would anyone want to do that?

(frozen comment)

[chardmonster]

I'd better tell my good Bengali friend in the department that we're no longer allowed to joke around about each other. I mean she's a few years older and considerably feistier than I'll ever be but she's brown, which makes her inherently weak.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT - Being friends is a mitigating circumstances, as I'm sure you know. If the OP has an Indian friend with whom he/she has that level of friendship, then mock away. Mocking the whole culture isn't quite the same thing, again, as I'm sure you know.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

And things like this are the reason why I tend to ignore the SJ crowd even when they might have a point. Just because something involves an ethnic subgroup, it doesn't make it automatically racist.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

I have neither been rude nor antagonistic in my arguments. You are welcome to engage my point if you acknowledge it, instead of ignoring me. I promise I will be civil.