Everyone loves a good stereotype joke.
At one point or another, we have all told a racial and politically incorrect joke to friends. It’s what people do. It’s in our nature to poke fun at those who are different than us.
I’m no prude when it comes to jokes of this nature, but is it really appropriate for Obama’s national security adviser to be calling Jews cheap in a room full of people discussing Middle East peace?
General James Jones, decorated military veteran and Obama’s current National Security Adviser, told the joke in question while giving an April 21 keynote speech at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The theme of the joke is nothing new — it’s a tried-and-true variation on a popular stereotype — but this is one that probably should have been kept in the break room at the institute.
The joke is, as follows, untranscribed:
A Taliban militant gets lost in the desert and is wandering around searching for water. He eventually comes across a store run by a Jewish merchant and asks for water. The Jewish vendor says, “I don’t have any water but I can happily sell you a tie!” The Taliban curses the Jewish storeowner, telling him that he is dying of thirst and that Jews are responsible for all his problems, ranting and raving and screaming obscenities.
Unfettered, the Jewish storeowner tells the militant, “Beyond the hill, a few miles down, there is a restaurant owned by my brother. Go there. He will give you all the water you want.” The Taliban, still angry, leaves muttering toward the hill.
An hour later he returns to the tie store, walks in and tells the Jewish merchant, “Your brother tells me I need a tie to get into the restaurant.”
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
I’m all for a little racial and stereotypical humor, but there is a time and a place. This was not it. Apparently the White House didn’t think so either, as that joke was interestingly left out of the transcript of the speech available for members of the press.
It’s a good thing we have YouTube, though, where one can go to see Jones deliver the joke in all its glory.
Why is it OK for a man involved in the Middle East “peace process” — a joke in itself – to tell a joke that promotes a Shakespearean “Shylock” Jewish stereotype? Why not follow it up with an Arab-based knee-slapper for the sake of consistency?
Oh, I know why. If Jones told a joke about Muslims he would be threatened by radicals, just like “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker were for their recent depiction of Mohammed in the Comedy Central cartoon.
Basically, Jewish jokes are allowed; Muslim jokes are not.
After “South Park” portrayed Mohammed — later revealed as Santa Claus — in a bear suit, Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, one of the leaders of Revolution Muslim, a radical Islamic organization based in New York City, called to Allah via Twitter to kill Stone and Parker.
I thought Islam was supposed to be a peaceful religion?
Religion, race, nationality and other related topics undoubtedly make for great fodder for jokes and the most offensive ones are often the best around. A government function, however, is not the right venue.
Jones later issued an apology stating that “[the joke] distracted from the larger message I carried that day: that the United States commitment to Israel’s security is sacrosanct.” Well, I guess that makes it OK.
By the way, this reminds me of a joke. So, a Muslim walks into a bar…
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and columnist for the Daily 49er.
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