For centuries, Hindu women have worn a dot on their foreheads. Most of us have naively thought this was connected with marriage or religion, but the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Has recently revealed the true story.To me, it's one of those jokes that not only is not very funny, but makes you roll your eyes in disgust. Every day I work with a diverse group of people, including the targeted group... so perhaps I highly respect their cultures in a way that others don't. So I turned the tables and reformulated the joke as follows:
When a Hindu woman gets married, she brings a dowry into the union. On her wedding night, the husband scratches off the dot to see whether he has won a convenience store, a gas station, a donut shop or a motel in the United States. If nothing is there, he must take a job in India answering telephones giving technical advice.
NEW DELHI (AP)--For centuries, American women have worn crosses around their necks, depicting a man being tortured to death. Most of us have thought that this has been connected to some kind of social status symbol, or religion. But the United States embassy in New Delhi has recently revealed the true story.In retrospect, I guess "American" doesn't fit that well... I should have mentioned one of the predominant religions here.
When an American woman gets married, her family usually pays for the wedding, and the groom's family pays for the honeymoon. On the first night of the honeymoon, the couple buries the tortured man under a pile of rocks. The next morning, if the man is gone, the couple is saved and will live happily ever after. They will be so overjoyed by the miracle of resurrection that they can ignore the unsustainable life they live, and be happy as they warm up the planet for their children. If the man remains, the husband's fate has been sealed: most likely as a fast food worker, Wal-Mart employee, gas station attendant, gang member, or construction worker.
If you find one of those "jokes" funny and not the other, you may have a cultural bias. Your culture is not more or less special than anyone else's. Get over it.
2 comments:
Mike, I think your re-write is brilliant and is such an obvious good response to these kind of strange email forwards. I get them often from my own distant relatives and find them really depressing but I never thought of addressing it the way you have. So, thanks! Also, I read all your other posts to and think your blog is very charming. Keep it up! Cheryl in Portland, Maine
hi! i'm one of andrea's flickr friends and decided to follow her link to your blog. i'm so glad i did, it's great to be around someone who thinks deeply and is aware of the lives of others around him.
thanks so much for turning the table on this ridiculous, ethnocentric pile of dung.
i'm sorry if stereotypical western "white" christianity is what you base your biases on. so sorry. there are Jesus freaks out here who really do believe in a personal relationship with him- the kind we'd die for, not beat people over the head with or try to persuade people to believe or change their culture over, etc...- not a political machine, tradition steeped means of controlling the world.
as a christian who is also a cultural minority, i believe you could probably use "good ol boys", to fill in the blank in your joke. in america at large, christianity is only a word, it's not a source of identity as islam or atheism or hinduism,etc...are.
i think you'd find non-western christians to be a whole different type of believer- in the best way (ever been to a messianic jewish service? wow. talk about getting the whole Bible picture- they do). christianity is a way of life for them, not tied to money or status or tradition or political manipulation but conviction. they have bled and died for their beliefs and continue to do so, much like contemporary muslims.
it's been said that the main cause of atheism today is christians who praise Jesus with their lips and deny him with their lifestyles...much like those folks who sent this joke to you.
we're not all like that. there are some of us who really do care about the world. do we think that Jesus is the only way to salvation? heck, yea. but do we force it on other people? heck no. the thought of that makes me sick to my stomach, mostly because Jesus himself didn't even live that way. he said what he had to say and left it up to the listener to believe or not. and, funny enough, in typical Jesus style, the people he was sarcastic and angry with were those "good ol boys" who thought they really had the God thing down.
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