Michael H
Kevin Lim
Tien Tran
when I relayed this story to him, after that there’s a level of oppression behind
speaking to Hing.
it. In the context of history, there’s been
no case where black people have been a
“They were oppressed by the English. socially dominant group over white people,
This is going to sound f****d up, but a that’s never been the case. So that’s why
lot of people that I’ve met from Ireland black people can go ‘oh white people dance
call themselves the blacks of Europe, like this’ and it’s funny, but as soon as white
because that’s the oppression that they people go ‘hey black people look weird’,
face. They’ve been slaves, they’ve had the then that’s just f****d up.”
potato famine. That’s the very confusing
thing about the Irish and the Scottish; they There is a general consensus that by
have the colour of the oppressors, but stereotyping different ethnicities, we
they’re the oppressed”.
minimise their experiences and continue
the oppression. Kevin Lim discusses why
It seems to all come down to the issue of painting any one group or nationality with
punching up, versus punching down. “If the same brush is detrimental, even railing
you’re a white guy, it’s very tasteless if you against the stereotype of the white, male
make fun of other races, but if you’re a middle-class comedian trope; “a lot of that
different race, it’s kind of fine for you to make is around because a lot of the earlier guys
fun of white people”, adds Tran. “When it just didn’t know how to make people laugh,
comes to white people, you can’t really be and they just fell into doing hack material.
racist towards them. You can be prejudiced But if you don’t do hack, then you have [