Am I Getting Better, Or Is He Getting Worse?

Comedy Central's been running The Blue Collar Comedy Tour and all of its offshoots a lot lately. Those offshoots include The Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again (or something like that) and specials with each of the stars of the tour. I actually find a lot of it pretty dang funny. You have to say 'dang', because it's all southern themed humour. I have to add the gratuitous 'u', because I spent a few years in the UK and it just flies off my keyboard.

I'm particularly keen on Ron White, probably because he goes through a full flask of whisky (I leave off the 'e' because I spent some time in Scotland) while he's on stage. I just like that. And there's something about his delivery and his stories that just appeals. One of my favorites punchlines is also the title of his book I Had the Right to Remain Silent...But I Didn't Have the Ability. It reflects an understanding of reality with which many reproductive rights advocates can identify.

Anyway, the point is, I actually had to mute him the last time I watched him each time he started to speak about his wife or ex-wife (who I believe are the same people). The gender stereotypes that pervaded his banter just rubbed me the wrong way and came off sounding a lot more like hate speech than like humour.

Am I becoming more attuned to how what we allow ourselves to listen to says about who we may allow ourselves to become, or am I just being overly sensitive?

An Apology and a Plea from a White Satiated Man in a Black Hungry Woman's World

I'm white. I'm a man. I'm male (I definitely cry at sappy and not-so-sappy movies, and can get fairly emotional, so maybe I have some female aspects -- something to blog about later because I'm not sure about 'gender' and how it works). I'd call myself upper middle class because I own my apartment, but I think I have way too much debt to be upper class. Given that I'm incurring more debt and that my career path a public interest attorney does not lead to wealth and luxury, my hold on 'upper middle' may be a tenuous one. Of course, on a global perspective I'm incredibly well off.

On the other hand, I'm Jewish. And I have experience some antisemitism. But at least in America, antisemitism doesn't seem to often manifest itself in professional or economic discrimination.

All of this is to say that I don't have a gut feel for a lot of the implications of racism and sexism and classism. Even though I might be academically attuned to it, and even though I may have some aptitude or instinct for spotting it (perhaps most often after I've committed it), I don't have an inherent or societized sensitivity to it. Of course, I don't think this disqualifies me from theorizing about all sorts of discrimination and the way society works, but I'm curious about how it influences my perspective (I often wish that there was some way we could experiment with humans -- create identical universes, except we'd just change one thing about one person and see what happened).

Also, I'm ignorant of the deep history of a lot of the movements that I support and align myself with. So while I consider myself a feminist, and I oppose racism, and support the GLBT 'agenda', I'm not a scholar of those movements. If I offend, if I use a term of art inaccurately, or if I belabor an issue that's already been addressed, please let me know. I'm want to learn, and I want to help.