Is this racism

[prettyprettyflowers]

Very senior manager was told off by HR for doing a mocking Chinese accent when talking about a trip to a Chinese restaurant in a senior meeting.
She then recounts story with same accent in different meeting as well as how funny it was HR told her off for it.

It Bothers me. But am I the only one?

racecar just because one Chinese person finds that joke funny doesn’t mean it is. One Chinese person is not all Chinese people. Beyond that joking about one’s own race is quite different to joking about another race.

My husband and I might make jokes between each other about our races but I wouldn’t do it in front of others. It’s too easy to go too far/push the wrong button.

I will joke with other Scottish people about Scots being tight or shagging sheep or being shit at football but I’m not that keen on hearing English people do the same.

@racecardriver they are ethnically Chinese. Their family is Chinese. They are Chinese enough to have spent their lifetime getting racist abuse. They know about Harrow and they still think it was racist.

But well done on trying to cancel out their opinion with: are they ethnically Chinese and my Chinese friend told me this joke.

This isn't a game when you're on the receiving end.

I get people mimicking my accent. No I don't find it funny although I rarely challenge it. It is a good way to weed out the fucking idiots.

racecar a ching chong ling long type joke is an example of great British humour?

Give me a break.

If anything, Chinese people who grow up in China are going to be less sensitive to racism because they haven’t grown up being racially abused every day.

Most Koreans I know who go abroad don’t even notice if people were being racist to them because they’re not used to it. Korean Americans are far more attuned to it.

One women Anne used to mimic my accent every time I met her. She belongs to a club I sometimes go to. She is racist, nasty and thick.

@Thefirststep you do realise that all those nationalities you have mentioned have their own languages (and therfore accents) right? Most of the girls at my school who can from China had that quirk of accent and liked to make fun of it too. I guess they just got the whole self deprication thing a bit better than most people. Can you seriously say that you would actually be upset if someone made fun of the way you mispronounced things? Tad oversensitive.

Yes it's racist and offensive.

I've been told gay jokes by gay people. Jewish jokes by Jewish people. And on and on. Doesn't mean they are funny, doesn't mean they aren't offensive to some people. Doesn't mean I get to tell them.

There is internalized racism. There is humour as a defence mechanism (look at me laughing at myself, you can't hurt me). Still doesn't mean those jokes are funny or fine.

FWIW British humour is a lot funnier since Davidson and his ilk fucked off. The snowflakes improved comedy. Team Snowflake.

Chibgchobgling isn't a home surely?

Joke.

Imitating a Chinese accent is particularly offensive because it has a social and historical context. Chinese people are often mocked because of their difficulties is pronouncing English sounds both in the media and in the real world. The implication is they are unintelligent. Mimicking a Spanish/Welsh/French accent isn’t nearly as offensive.

racecar NO SHIT they speak different languages, are you kidding me????

I think you need to reread my post. It doesn’t matter where you come from in east Asia, you get the same shitty ‘harro’ jokes from fannies.

I’d rather be over sensitive than a thick, racist fuck.

" I guess they just got the whole self deprication thing a bit better than most people. "

so you had thousands spent on your education and still cant spell and have a racist sense of 'humour'?

Not the best ad for private education are you?

fourfried but don’t you get it? She wants to make a hilarious joke about how Chinese people can’t speak properly! She has the right! Stop being a snowflake!!!!

I get people mimicking my accent. No I don't find it funny although I rarely challenge it. It is a good way to weed out the fucking idiots.

I have an English accent and live in the US, and I also get really sick of people mimicking my accent.

It's not racist and it's probably not offensive but it's fucking boring.

I now just stare at them and wait till they've finished, then carry on what I was saying.

Self depreciation is very different from others taking the piss out of your accent.
And friends taking the piss out of each other is very very different from others doing so. Friends know what will really hurt and what is okay to have a laugh about.

Intention is everything. If mimicking an accent is done in a mocking way then yes it is offensive and can be racist in certain circumstances. If the intention is not to be mocking then that’s fine. I’m welsh. I get people mimicking my accent frequently. The vast majority of the time it is done in a perfectly acceptable jokey manner and I am not bothered at all by it. It is part of who I am and when someone recounts something I have said then the very poor accent attempt is par for the course. It would be terribly sad if the offensive language police stopped this perfectly legitimate form of human interaction

anyway, why do chinese people talk all funny?

before they all became so PC.
Yawn, that get out clause is becoming a tad tired now.
Your lecture Racecard is ill informed, as is the nonsense about a Chinese person telling you the joke. My dd calls herself a spaz. She's a wheelchair user with a form of cerebral palsy, she's allowed to. I'm not. You're not. Not because it's not PC but because it is up to people how they choose to define themselves in a given moment, not up to you, not up to me, the days of the Empire a long gone. Ergo, still racist, no matter how you choose to dress it up. You see, by imitating someone's accent, you're not mentioning race, are you.

" I’m welsh. I get people mimicking my accent frequently. "

ahh yes Welshness that last bastion of acceptable racism, look you, boyo...:)

Depends on intent imo. Do you think she hates Chinese people? If yes then it’s racist. If no then it’s clumsy humour.

"Depends on intent imo. Do you think she hates Chinese people? If yes then it’s racist. If no then it’s clumsy humour."
Nope. Just racism. Because she was told- so even if there was a remote possibility that she didn't realise before HR spoke to her there was no excuse after.....

I remember a thread where a poster said she and her husband weren’t racist as the racist language they were using was in private. Seems par for the course with some of the posts on this thread...

Why is intention everything?

You can be offensive and hurtful with intending to be so.