The Bitching thread 2.0

[joe_galindez]

It was supposed to move on to a bit about how my wife, who is black, can't actually tell black people apart. Every time there's a black actor onscreen she goes, "Is this Eddie Murphy?" And I'm like, "Woman, that is Morgan Freeman and they look nothing alike."

[SoFt]

Urgh. I didn't enjoy that x) . I don't find it offensive, but I also don't find it funny. It sounds like your wife just has face-blindness. It might work better if one of the actors actually wasn't black at all; it would subvert audience expectations (helps them laugh with you) and make you both look silly for thinking the non-black actor was, in fact, black (lets them laugh at you). Might work best if you lead or follow up with a joke about you both being colorblind in the more scientific sense.

Really, I'm just describing this as a stand-up routine . It reads pretty flatly as text on a screen.

[punkarsenic]

@joe_galindez @Aspie_Gamer can you both chill about that joke being flagged? you can have your opinions on over sensitivity, but in this particular scenario that joke is an old and well-known staple among jokes considered racist. its the exact joke people would repeat at my school if they wanted to tell a story about a teacher being racist. humour can get touchy, and close to the mark, and thats cool, but that joke was just old and hokey to boot.

the community guidelines are as they are, if posts are hidden manually then mods clearly looked at it and said 'yeah thats against the rules.' so hey, offensive or not, it broke the rules. life goes on.

(also, for the record, never flagged it, totally ignored it)

[joe_galindez]

Well, the timing is butchered now. First I was going to go on about how she actually does vanish in the dark. Like, turn down the lights and it's just eyes and a set of teeth. Then i was going to go on about how, even though she's just one Afro wig away from cosplaying Foxy Brown, she actually hasn't spent a lot of time around other black people and consequently has never had to distinguish among them. And that's a thing:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/some-people-suffer-from-face-blindness-for-other-races/

you can have your opinions on over sensitivity, but in this particular scenario that joke is an old and well-known staple among jokes considered racist.

Is it actually racist though?

[punkarsenic]

general consensus says yes! thats why it was flagged, why the mods decided to block it, and why people refer to that joke as 'a racist joke' basically everywhere. its even a pretty obvious one. as in like, people who like offensive humour and are pretty moderate in every issue will hear that joke and say 'oh, thats racist' (and i know from experience, like i said, ive heard many people, black and white alike, quote this joke as evidence of someone being racist)

you can talk abt the freedom to pick fun at any group, how thats part of being equal, but i dont think predictable, run of the mill jokes about skintone are very high on the list of things that need defending.

[SoFt]

Humor is subjective, holmes. In forum form, I wouldn't have found it funny either way; as I said, I've heard that kind of joke a million times, being black myself. I can remember it being truly funny exactly once. I still get a chuckle thinkin' back on that instance.

And that's from someone who doesn't balk at the joke in and of itself. Lots o' folk here do--probably the majority--and not without cause. Like I said, gotta know your audience.

[joe_galindez]

@punkarsenic But is general consensus right? Remember, my joke didn't insult anyone's intelligence or culture. It didn't liken black people to animals or dismiss all the suffering in their history. It didn't make any moral statements with regard to black people. And it definitely wasn't mean-spirited. All it said was, "Your skin is dark, therefore you blend in with things that are dark."

I get that there are bad associations, but the joke itself isn't offensive. Which makes me wonder where all your reactions are coming from.

Humor is subjective, holmes. In forum form, I wouldn't have found it funny either way; as I said, I've heard that kind of joke a million times, being black myself. I can remember it being truly funny exactly once. I still get a chuckle thinkin' back on that instance.

And that's from someone who doesn't balk at the joke in and of itself. Lots o' folk here do--probably the majority--and not without cause. Like I said, gotta know your audience.

Are you actually developing an accent as we talk?

[punkarsenic]

@punkarsenic But is general consensus right? Remember, my joke didn't insult anyone's intelligence or culture. It didn't liken black people to animals or dismiss all the suffering in their history. It didn't make any moral statements with regard to black people. And it definitely wasn't mean-spirited. All it said was, "Your skin is dark, therefore you blend in with things that are dark."

I get that there are bad associations, but the joke itself isn't offensive. Which makes me wonder where all your reactions are coming from.

i think you might have hit on something with 'bad associations' - but lets take it further, and say the joke has bad history. its the kind of joke racists make, its the kind of joke that highlights that someones skin is particularly dark and therefor different from the teller of the joke, which can make people feel uncomfortable and othered. jokes about black peoples skin can get way more racist, so that joke is the tip of an iceberg that looms into everyone's mind when its told. while it may be true that someones skin is darker and different to yours, laughing about it can still be hurtful, and its not really your joke to make. i know, weve clashed before on the 'your x to y' side of things, but please realise that when youre telling a joke, it is most definitely coming from you, and who you are affects its delivery. and thats just not a joke people fancy hearing from a nonblack guy. context is everything, dude.

anyway, i think youre missing the part of my original point that was 'who cares?' like, really, it was a small and unfunny joke, the reaction was unsurprising, itd be easier if we all just carried on. going with @ScorpiusNox 's standup allegory, when a joke falls flat you dont spend the rest of the show asking people why they didnt laugh, why they maybe bood - you make light of it, and swiftly move on.

now, lets move on. i did my first figure drawing session in ages, because theyd been cancelled at college for the last three and a half months, and i havent had the time to organise them myself. i am so out of practice, its super frustrating. i made some alright stuff by the end, but i think if theres no life drawing when i get back to college next week, im gonna have to find sessions elsewhere, and i think id be complaining to head of department.

[dawgofdawgness]

sneak into yoga sessions and creepily draw people after all, it's free

[punkarsenic]

gasp.......... clever

ive considered stuff like that actually, its nice, natural. back when i studied theatre the actors used to lounge about in place a lot while the director gave instructions, i got some great drawings of them. dancers too! dancers are the best! i could organise a deal with the dance students at college, were in the same block and pretty friendly. double win, bc i love watching dance (and dancers are very very attractive, wholesale)

that said, actual life drawing sessions have the benefit of being able to ask someone to stay in place for an exact period of time, chasing after a pose before its gone can be stressful

[SoFt]

Are you actually developing an accent as we talk?

I shift accents as I engage online. It's just sorta fun for me, and I also hope the playfulness of it helps to make clear that I'm in good spirits in regards to the discussion .

sneak into yoga sessions and creepily draw people

One does not simply sneak into yoga...

...Right? I mean, those rooms are pretty small. Wouldn't they catch you and throw you out x) ?

[punkarsenic]

Wouldn't they catch you and throw you out x) ?

aint there mirrors all over the walls too?

[dawgofdawgness]

shh nobody sees artists anyway ;_;

[dawgofdawgness]

[SoFt]

Have you had that queued up this whole time x) ?

[dawgofdawgness]

quite possibly

[punkarsenic]

anyway, anyway! yes! moving on!

ive recently reconnected with a dear friend from school, and its really nice, but she has this habit of calling me out of the blue to chat. i really love it, but its so hard to double-focus, and i end up going 'yeah yeah yep' for whole conversations. :U she seems to appreciate it tho, its nice to hear from her

[punkarsenic]

i have a tonne of csp brushes now and i love each and every one, but bc i go so long between different stages of page making, i keep forgetting what brush ive been using for what stage. its so frustrating, i need to take more thorough notes ://

[dawgofdawgness]

That sucks, does CSP allow you to label the brushes like Sai?

[punkarsenic]

it does! but i dont wanna change the names and forget what they are, yknow? i wish it had a little notes section for each brush. the real solution is for me to like, film me making a batch sometime so i have the entire process to reference (thatd be a biiiiig file though)

or, well, make notes... but thats effort...