04
Aug
2007
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When mainstream or ethnic humor crosses the line in journalism and entertainment

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Here’s the presentation I made this morning at the Asian American journalists Association (AAJA) convention in Miami, Florida:

Asian American Journalists Association
“When Humor Crosses the line in Journalism and Entertainment”
Saturday, August 4, 2007 Hyatt Regency Miami

Panelists

Ray Hanania, Moderator (Columnist, standup comedian, www.hanania.com)
Emil Guillermo, Asian Week Columnist, humorist (www.AMOK.com)
Tina Kim, former TV broadcaster, standup comedienne (www.TinaKim.com)

A gun only becomes a weapon when it is pointed at someone.

In much the same way, humor can become a weapon when it is pointed at someone, too.

Today, we’re going to talk about humor and how it is and should be used in journalism, and in entertainment. And when we try to distinguish between journalism and entertainment, we might use the analogy of distinguishing between a real gun used in a crime, and a fake gun used in a Hollywood fantasy.

Humor is a very powerful way to grab an audience’s attention in a column or a newspaper story. Sometimes, though, the humor can hurt.

In standup comedy, humor can make a very powerful statement about politics, society and every topic under the sun.

I think the real issue is not just simply the words that make up a joke, but rather the context of a joke. Are you laughing with someone? Or, are you laughing at someone.

It makes a difference.

We often hear people say that African Americans can poke fun at themselves and say things that might otherwise sound racist when said by someone else who is not Black.

That is true for any race, nationality, ethnicity or religion. Yet, race, nationality, ethnicity and religion all play a major role in our society and impact how we think as a people and the opinions we express.

I’ve have been a journalist for 32 years and last year was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New America Media. But sometime during the 1980s, as a reporter covering Chicago’s City Hall, I was transformed from a reporter and a columnist to an “Arab American” columnist.

If I wrote a column on my ethnic background, I was considered biased. I struggled with that problem for years and finally decided I will brand myself as a Palestinian or Arab American columnist to take away the edge of criticism associated with being branded by someone else.

But after Sept. 11, 2001, being Arab American became a crime. People looked at me and blamed me for the terrorism. People read my columns and accused me of being anti-American. They said I was not patriotic, even though I served during the Vietnam War, my brother was a U.S. Marine and my father and uncle both served in during World War II.

Suddenly, the awards meant nothing and it became harder and harder to find work in journalism. After all, how many of the nation’s 4,500 newspapers would hire an Arab American columnist for their newspapers.

After Sept. 11, a woman came to me and said, “I can’t believe you abandoned your Christian faith to become an Arab.” I realized then, and after weeks of being called “Ray-Qaeda” in letters and emails, that I had to do something more than just write reasoned columns that offered common sense about the Middle East, about Arabs and about Muslims to the American people.

I recognize that Americans are the most educated people in the world but the least educated about the world. Many Americans can’t tell the difference between a Pakistani and a Palestinians, an Iranian and an Indian, a good president and a moron.

So, I decided to enter standup comedy. I know that humor can change how people view Arabs and Muslims, especially humor that has an educating aspect to it. Standup comedy is not just about making people laugh, but also about making people laugh at the very difficult issues that we face as a people.

Some of the comedy is self-deprecating. I can make fun of being Arab American because I am Arab American. I can even make fun of Jewish people in the very strict context of the fact that I am Palestinian and my wife and son are Jewish.

(Sample Comedy Routine using various forms of humor: ethnic, social satire, self-deprecating, political, slice-of-life).

Yet, the world has become a very blurry place. Reason has been replaced by insanity. Common sense has become too expensive for the average American.

Humor and standup comedy has transformed from a form of entertainment into a weapon. We’re not always laughing with each other. We are laughing at each other. Humor has become a weapon in the loose, carefree environment of cable TV talk. It has been running wild and driven by demagoguery on talk radio for years before.

I was most offended by Don Imus when he referred to the women of the Rutger’s Basketball team as “nappy headed hoes.” I’m not Black, but what really upset me beyond the racism was the defense of Imus that was being used. Suddenly, Imus was being portrayed as a “shock Jock,” a term that was used almost exclusively to describe Howard Stern.

He was described as an on-air comedian, when in fact he tried to portray himself as a mainstream serious commentator.

What offended me the absolute most was that Don Imus often used racist terms and phrases to describe Arabs and Muslims and no one ever said a word of complaint.

But, let’s face it, this is a racist country. But it is stratified racism. There is a hierarchy to the racism and the victims of racism, just as there are color shades and levels of distinction when we address diversity in our American news rooms.

We cannot talk about the travesties of racist humor without talking about the rampant racism that takes place in this country. We have to address disease not the symptoms. Racist humor is the weapon of racists.

We must address the fact that in our American society today, Americans have come to accept some races and embraced them in the context of diversity, but there is a glass wall, a line that is in sand that casts Arabs, Muslims and anyone from the Middle East as an acceptable target of racism, racist humor and racist jokes.

As Asian American journalists, many of you have the moral shield to confront the racism that targets you. But we cannot simply put an ethnic or racial face to the victims of racist humor. Racist humor really goes beyond one racial group, one ethnicity and even one religion. Racist humor impacts us all. And we have to stand up to speak out against all racist humor, regardless of when the targets are the “US” are are the “THEMS.”

And it is not just racism in humor.

As journalists, we must be allowed to push the envelope of controversies as far as possible. We must be able to address, discuss and write about every issue, including the most disgusting. Free speech and freedom of expression are important because it assumes rightly that the person hearing the speech has the intelligence and common sense to determine what is and what is not appropriate.

I am not against Don Imus being a racist. I am not against anyone using racist language in their entertainment, their writings or their broadcast appearances.

What I am against is the hypocrisy and double standards of our society which views one form of racism as unacceptable, and another as an everyday obligation.

The fact that Don Imus used racist terms to describe the mostly Black women of the Rutger’s Basketball team is wrong. But even more wrong is that somehow, that racism is worse than racism we see, read and hear every day about Arabs and even about Asian Americans.

Of course, I’m not just Ray Hanania, award winning columnist. I am that “Arab American columnist” that so few American newspapers are afraid to publish.

Why wouldn’t I say all this?

Now, I’d like to introduce our first presenter …

I will ask you to hold your questions until the end. We do plan to leave time to take questions and engage in a discussion that we hope will continue on the AAJA web site.

Final points:

  • America is a nation built on race and the sensitivity and awareness to racial differences is high are there is a hierarchy.
  • Don Imus was racist in his remarks about the African American members of the female Rutgers basketball team; but, he had the right to express his views.
  • Stereotypes are simple answers to complicated issues. When people can’t explain something, they resort to racism, hatred and exploitation of fear. The answer to racism is education.
  • Self-deprecating humor is a means of educating audiences. When you make fun of your own stereotypes, you are laughing “with” people and there by taking the hateful edge off of racist stereotypes. If I can laugh about my stereotype, why do you then take them seriously?
  • Muslims and Arabs have a keen sense of humor but an ever greater sensitivity to standup comedy that addresses them. Standup comedy is often humor that is used to challenge the issues that face us as people, whereas humor in its most basic form simply entertains and doesn’t necessarily have a point. Arabs and Muslims come from repressive societies where Free Speech and freedom of expression is challenged and still maturing, and therefore they do not have experience with Standup comedy as a form of social commentary challenging the taboos and norms of a society. Many Arabs and Muslims are sensitive and “offended” by Arab American standup comedy, and especially Muslims who take great offense to any humor directed at their religion. That must change if we are to mature as societies and embrace true freedom and Democratic ideals and principles of civil rights.

    • – Ray Hanania