Oddly Enough

This article was filed under "Oddly Enough" on the yahoo website.

Italians are a little upset because of the way posters on the London Metro would portray them.

In the abstract, I find nothing wrong with racial/ethnic humor. Some jokes can be quite witty, but even those that aren't do more to bring races together than any federal policy. When people are charitable to laugh at each others jokes, racial tension seems to go the way of the dodo. I am always the butt of Greek jokes (pun intended), and I dish them out as well as I get them to my friends and those who I know are adult enough to enjoy a joke.

Unfortunately, we've gotten to the point where we can make fun of some groups and not others. Make fun of a black man and you're a racist (as long as you're white, anyway). However, if you're black you can call whites "crackers," "honkeys," etc. all you want. Many comedians have made a career out of this sort of humor. That's all well and good; just be willing to give as well as you can take.

So, in summary, I don't really mind that the London Metro poked fun at my dago-whop brethren; let's just be equal opportunity about our jokes, and realize that humor does a lot to defuse racial and ethnic tensions.