Do You Think This is Funny?

[Rhondazvous]

Someone here at AF sent this to me and I’m having a hard time figuring out just how to respond. This person is not stupid—not someone that any of us would think of as an asshole. But that makes it all the more puzzling and unexpected.

All good Rhonda... nothing to complain about! The wife never listens anyway!
The last time I asked her "what did your last slave die of", she responded: Not sure, never bothered to check? Hehe

I know the history of the country this person lives in. it’s not a history of slavery. It’s a history of extermination. His people just hunted my people down and cut up their bodies for dog food. Can you see why I’m having a hard time with this?

I don’t think race should be a taboo subject at AF. Still, how would you take what this person said to me?

[Faith No More]

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it public.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Shorn of context, I can't give you a useful answer, except to say that I try not to allow strangers to cut me, especially online.

[Dystopia]

It's only normal to feel bothered by what that person said even if you don't have a racial identity. I have a dear friend who is an Ukrainian immigrant and she absolutely hates Russia because of what happened in Ukraine - Not Russians as people, but the political system and the Russian government - One day she met this guy in college who looked slavic, and so she asked if he was Russian or something like that - He said he was Russian - She asked if he could speak Ukrainian and he replied "I'll never speak such a filthy mudblood language" - Wouldn't any person with a brain react negatively?

Full disclosure - There's a lot of jokes in Portugal about how Brazilians used to be our slaves, but no one dreams of telling that to a Brazilian because of how disrespectful it is, unless you're friends with the person or something.

If this happened to me IRS, I'd probably insult the person harshly and lose my mind. It's not something people take lightly where I live. You can insult people's football teams, and even religion or political opinions, but two things you can't insult are countries of origin and people's relatives/family.

[Violet]

I think it is funny... and unless the context is specifically targeting you (is it? I've no context to suggest either way): I would advise you not take it personally.

At this time, I'd take it as a humorous aside.

[Athene]

It would be difficult to determine what he meant without seeing the rest of the dialogue between the two of you. I'm taking this out of context of course, but I think he could have been poking fun with the idea that husbands are "slaves" to their wives whims and/or demands, going by  this snippet alone.....with slave being an ex or ex-husband. I could be wrong, though. You should ask him.

[paulpablo]

Someone here at AF sent this to me and I’m having a hard time figuring out just how to respond. This person is not stupid—not someone that any of us would think of as an asshole. But that makes it all the more puzzling and unexpected.

All good Rhonda... nothing to complain about! The wife never listens anyway!
The last time I asked her "what did your last slave die of", she responded: Not sure, never bothered to check? Hehe

I know the history of the country this person lives in. it’s not a history of slavery. It’s a history of extermination. His people just hunted my people down and cut up their bodies for dog food. Can you see why I’m having a hard time with this?

I don’t think race should be a taboo subject at AF. Still, how would you take what this person said to me?

Race wasn't mentioned in the sentence there so I don't think it's offensive in the sense of racial involvement.
As a person who likes good comedy I'm offended, that joke is crap.  I guess you might be offended if you had any slaves in your family within recent enough generations for you to remember.

Additionally all this talk of "His people" and "My people" reminds me of a convo I had in work with some guy, he basically said my dead grandmother was probably a bitch because she was Russian and Russians killed a lot of his ancestors in some war.  I don't pay attention to that type of bullshit talk but I was in shock about him calling my dead grandmother a bitch so I told him I'm glad that my people exterminated his people and I thought it was funny.  Then he seemed a bit shocked but we still remained genuinely friendly to each other after that convo that day. 

All that I took away from that convo is that it was probably the weirdest convo I've ever had in work, I don't know I he meant to be as offensive as he was but my knee jerk reaction is to instantly be offensive back.

[Jenny A]

Someone here at AF sent this to me and I’m having a hard time figuring out just how to respond. This person is not stupid—not someone that any of us would think of as an asshole. But that makes it all the more puzzling and unexpected.

All good Rhonda... nothing to complain about! The wife never listens anyway!
The last time I asked her "what did your last slave die of", she responded: Not sure, never bothered to check? Hehe

I know the history of the country this person lives in. it’s not a history of slavery. It’s a history of extermination. His people just hunted my people down and cut up their bodies for dog food. Can you see why I’m having a hard time with this?

I don’t think race should be a taboo subject at AF. Still, how would you take what this person said to me?

Without reading the whole PM (or whatever it was) I'd take it as a joke about husband and wife relations having nothing to do with race at all.

BUT, reading quotes from private PM's without a very good reason for making them public makes me uncomfortable.   Like racisim, it's not against the rules at AF, but it isn't nice either.

[rexbeccarox]

I have to say I'm really uncomfortable with quoting private messages in open forum, even without the author's identity being revealed.

[Rhondazvous]

It would be difficult to determine what he meant without seeing the rest of the dialogue between the two of you. I'm taking this out of context of course, but I think he could have been poking fun with the idea that husbands are "slaves" to their wives whims and/or demands, going by  this snippet alone.....with slave being an ex or ex-husband. I could be wrong, though. You should ask him.

That's possible. Thanks for that new perspective. I don't usually take what men say personally. but race is not personal. A racial slur is not something aimed at one person to be dealt with as an individual. Knowamsane? But if you're right, then I've still got a friend.