Bill Maher 6/9/17

[Brian37]

I agree, I think the sane can tell the difference between when a word is being used out of hate, when it simply said without thinking, and when it is used between those in on it done to endear. Bill is hardly a bigot or racist, it was simply not thought out.

Yes he should. And he did. 

Just a couple weeks ago, in my real personal life, I was at the local shopping center a few blocks from my house waiting for food outside a Chinese place. I started talking to an Asian guy who said his parents migrated to Hawaii and brought him there when he was a kid. Without thinking I said "You are a dreamer", that was a stupid remark on my part, because he very well could have had legal status. NO it was not racist on my part, but it was a case of me not thinking first. I saw him again two days ago at the same place, I apologized. "Dreamer" in any case is a term mostly used by Hispanics brought here undocumented. So it was still not a well thought out comment on my part.

But that's not really the same though, is it? I wasn't aware of the term Dreamer, but I can guess it's a slur in how you explain it. But you, while I'm sure you're not racist, called someone a dreamer. Maher didn't call anyone else a house nigger. If I understand correctly, you apologized because you felt bad about using a slur against someone and maybe made an assumption about him. Maher, however, used self-deprecation. Who does he have to apologize to? He didn't use it on anyone in particular. So who? The black community as a whole? If so, for what? The joke, whilst again not particularly funny in my book, only works because Maher feels that it's not okay to label someone with 'house nigger'. The message of the joke isn't that it's okay to use that term in regards to people. If anything it builds on the fact that we know it's not okay.

If I, for instance, make the joke: 'Q: What's the best thing about having sex with twenty-five year olds? A: That there's twenty of them.' This joke doesn't approve of pedophelia. It works on the fact that we are uncomfortable with pedophilia. It respects that we as a species don't like it and that's why it can shock us. In that way the joke doesn't build the message 'pedophilia is good', it builds the message 'pedophilia is bad'.

You missed my point, "Dreamer" is NOT a slur, but it was still thoughtless on my part because I didn't know the guy's legal status first off, secondly it does not refer to Asians but mainly Hispanics and Latinos. 

Now you really want to hear a story from my past that was REALLY EVEN WORSE AND BONEHEADED ON MY PART. 

Here you go.....

I had a friend who was in the DC music scene back in the late 80s early 90s. He took me to a music club called "9:30". A all black rock band played called "Living Color" if anyone remembers that.

So I got drunk off my ass, really enjoyed the band, my friend knew them, took me back stage. 

Next morning I get a call from my friend, shouting at me over the phone, "YOU SON OF A BITCH"..... "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID?"

He told me what I had said, and I was MORTIFIED at what I said "If I had closed my eyes I never would have known you were black."..... What I really meant, was it was great to see diversity in music, BUT that is not how I put it, and my friend was completely justified at his anger, and I am also lucky the band members knew I was drunk and didn't get my ass kicked."

The point is, when you say something stupid it is ok to admit it and apologize for it.