Zombie_Babies
First Post
It's really not. If I'm truly bothered by jokes about being a geek, I could stop being a geek easily enough. If a person were truly bothered about jokes about being ginger, they can't stop being ginger - it's a matter of genetics, and part of who they are. The best they could do is hide it, and that's hardly a good solution.
No, it really is. You completely missed my point. Of course someone couldn't stop being a ginger - that's impossible. The obviousness of that should have been a clue that you were on the wrong trail - at least one would think. Since you missed it, I'll try to explain:
By 'personally choose to see it' I meant how the offended party in question chooses to see the joke. What people don't understand is that they choose to be offended. I learned a long time ago that my happiness in life was predicated solely upon my own perception of the events that occurred in it. If someone made fun of me, I could take that as an attack and be angry or saddened by it ... or I could brush it off. In the case of what we're mostly talking about here, if I say gingers have no soul (remember, I've explained this several times, that I think that statement is ludicrous and therefore obviously not ever said as fact) a ginger could decide to be offended or see it as the joke it is. Really, we have a lot more power than we give ourselves credit for.
So yeah, you're right: A ginger can't take take off their skin or dye their hair ... wait ... umm ... anyhoo, that skin thing still works ... maybe ... uhh ... where was I? Oh yeah, a ginger can't stop being a ginger, no, but they can decide what bothers them and what doesn't and they can decide to see a joke as a joke. Really, is it that hard to tell the difference between someone poking fun and someone taking a shot? Really?
Whether you or I think they have a reason to be bothered by the 'jokes' is largely irrelevant. They are bothered by them.
Yup, I get that. See above.
I'm also afraid that any claim it is "just a joke" is simply mistaken. I suggest reading here on the topic, and especially this bit about modern discrimination. The cases of violence it describes are thankfully rare, but that doesn't make them any less wrong.
Wrong. If I make a joke and I say it's just a joke, guess what, it's just a joke! Who knows better in that case, me or you?
For the record, I never said any violence was ok. I also never said any sort of violence was a joke. I want to thank you for illustrating how easy it is for some people to mix the two up for whatever reason. That's really the issue here: Some people can't tell the difference between a joke and a knuckle sandwich.
[sblock=The difference
![Devious :] :]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png)