What part of "things happen in context" do you not understand? US Americans make fun of Hispanic names all the time. Even if they're not aware that a Hispanic person is there. Even if they don't consider themselves racist and would never think of discriminating against someone on the basis of their name.
So correct me if I'm reading this wrong. What you're saying is that because there are people who are racist towards Hispanic people, that instantaneously means we should never involve a Hispanic name in a joke. In much the same way that in older, more racist decades, people were racist against black people, so black people were never allowed on TV shows.
I never said white US Americans are intentionally racist. Also, I live here. I hear all the snide comments made by white US Americans about how funny Hispanic names are, the comments about how stupid it is that they should have to speak Spanish for a job in *surprise* an area with predominantly Spanish speaking people, how Hispanics "get all the jobs because they speak Spanish". I live this.
Right, so white US Americans make fun of Hispanic names, complain about needing Spanish to get a job in a predominantly Spanish-speaking area and how Hispanics get all the jobs because they speak Spanish anyway.
So it's fair to say that Hispanics get the short end of the stick in everyday life in America.
But that doesn't give them a free pass to say "you can't use our names in jokes". Racial equality is about harmony between peoples, how can you achieve that when you're trying to balance some imaginary scales? "People are racist towards me, so no one can use my name in a joke." That just throws up more divisive walls between people, it doesn't help solve the problem of racism.
Also, if you
live this, isn't it possible that perhaps you might not have the best clarity on the issue? Someone caught in the eye of the storm can't really tell you how strong the storm was or how much damaged it caused. All they can give you is personal opinion.
Equality does not mean symmetry. The racial slur "nigger" has had centuries of bad connotations. Racial slurs against white people do not have that same history. They don't have the same emotional or sociological impact as "nigger". "Nigger" has been used to oppress, whereas "cracker" and "honky" are used by the oppressed group as a sort of backlash. There are white US Americans that have never heard of the terms "cracker" and "honky". Try finding a black US American that doesn't know what nigger means.
Now, I'm not saying that "cracker" and "honky" can't be hurtful words; I think racial slurs referring to anybody are absolutely horrible. However, there is no denying that some words hurt more than other and "nigger" is one of those extremely hurtful words.
Like I said, racial equality is about harmony between peoples. Grudge-bearing does not promote harmony. I don't care whether it was hundreds of years of oppression or a chicken that was stolen three generations ago. To achieve harmony, you have to move beyond old wounds.
If your race is the one in power and it's oppressing another race, then that can be called racism. I'm saying that in this commercial, the usage of the name "Hernandez" served as a free pass for making fun of the name Hernandez.
And if you avoided using the name "Hernandez" completely, it would serve as a free pass for treating people called "Hernandez" differently anyway.
Because when you continue to joke about the name "Hernandez", that gives out an "okay" to continue treating "Hernandez" like a foreign name and that it's ok to make fun of it. If it becomes accepted to make fun of people with the name Hernandez, it's not too far a stretch to say it's okay to treat people with the name Hernandez differently.
By the same logic, if you never joke about the name "Hernandez", then it gives out the feeling that the name "Hernandez" is different from other names. If it never becomes accepted to make fun of the name Hernandez, it's not too far a stretch to say it's okay to treat people with the name Hernandez differently, since other names can be mocked just fine.
Except that there's sort of a history in making fun of Hispanic names in the USA (as my friends and I can personally tell you!). This didn't occur in a vacuum; you have to look at this example in context. Even if this name was chosen totally innocently, it does not change the effect it has on the people watching it.
So it doesn't matter why they picked it, what intent they had with it, it's just
never okay to use the name "Hernandez" in a joke? What kind of effect would that have on people? If you treat "Hernandez" as an untouchable name, by the logic you keep using, people will treat people called "Hernandez" differently. If the intent with which a name is in included doesn't matter, then, by the same token, the intent with which a name is excluded doesn't matter either, it's still going to have the same effect.
It's common courtesy. When Hernandez becomes as accepted a name as "McClements" or "Jones" or "O'Leiry", it will be okay to joke about it because making fun of that name won't serve to disempower people. However, as long as people are treating people named "Hernandez" differently on the basis of their name, then making fun of the name is not okay.
How is "Hernandez"
ever going to be treated the same way as "McClements" or "Jones" or "O'Leiry" if you don't treat it the same way that you treat those names? If people are treating people name "Hernandez" differently on the basis of their name, then treating the name "Hernandez" differently is only going to reaffirm their racism, not fight it. They'll see it as a justification of their beliefs, whatever the intent of treating "Hernandez" differently.
Well, you mentioned TV Tropes, so...
Here you go.
It's not exactly a secret.
And in the context that I mentioned TVTropes, I said that they consider the "Black Dude Dies First" trope a Dead Horse Trope; a trope which only occurs as parody or subversion any more. The name come from the phrase "flogging a dead horse", which means "continuing to talk or argue about an issue after it has been resolved".
Even if the black guy (and other minorities) doesn't die first anymore, they're less likely to stay alive to the end of the film.
Also, if you believe that it's a coincidence that black characters are much more likely to die first than white characters you are incredibly naive. It's not coincidence if it happens over and over and over again.
First of all, no I don't think it's coincidence. It obviously happened.
Happened, past tense. And continuing to gripe about it doesn't help promote the harmony necessary to bring about racial equality.
And of course, this is just one trope involving minorities. How about the Indian guy who is always a nerd (oh hey Phineas and Ferb and a bunch of other modern shows I can't remember), the Asian guy who is always an IT worker, the Hispanic guy doing menial work, the
Magical Negro... and these are just the ones I'm aware of.
Yes, there are tropes about minorities that show up repeatedly, but they're showing up less an less. They're dying out by themselves. The PC crowd might think they're helping they dying process, but they're not, they're slowing it down. Every time a minority protests against the political-correctness of the Indian nerd, the Asian IT worker, the Hispanic labourer or, indeed, the Magical Negro, someone somewhere is going to say "look, they want their races treat differently. they think their races are too good for our jokes." I'm not agreeing with what they're saying, but we both know just how dumb the average bigot is. If that person wasn't already racist, they get pushed a little closer to being one. And if that person was already racist, it gives them what they see as justification for their beliefs. How does that help racial equality, exactly?
There's a reason they chose "Hernandez" and not "Jingleheimerschmidt" or "Prenderville" and it's because in the USA there is a history of Hispanic people having "funny" names and then being treated differently because of that. Remember that there's a big racial context behind all this.
Or, they chose "Hernandez" because it's just one of those names that some people genuinely find difficult to pluralise, whereas "Prenderville" and even "Jingleheimerschmidt" are very simple. You can't assume anything about the reasons behind choosing the name. For all you know, a Hispanic guy called Hernandez wrote the ad because in the past he's seen people having trouble pluralising his name and thought it would be a funny joke at their expense.
If he's being othered and treated poorly and made fun of because of his heritage, I see no problem with him perhaps wanting people not to make fun of his name. I can tell you that Hispanics aren't exactly the most loved group in the USA and having your heritage being made fun of doesn't exactly make living with that prejudice on you any easier.
But they're not making fun of anybody's heritage. If
anything, it's people with speech impediments who should be complaining, after all, the joke is at the expense of the guy who can't pluralise "Hernandez". But they're not complaining because they understand that even for people without speech impediments, some names are hard to pronounce or pluralise.
They get the joke
Making jokes that disempower people don't promote racial equality either. I'd say making it acceptable to make fun of Hispanic names doesn't promote racial equality. If the Hernandez family had shown up without their name being ridiculously mangled (seriously, the Hernandezes. Not so hard), that would have been a step towards racial equality.
Actually, making it acceptable to make fun of Hispanic names is
exactly what promotes racial equality. You can't have equality if people are saying "you can't make fun of my name because of my race".
If the Hernandez family had shown up without their name being mangled, there wouldn't have been a joke. It's supposed to be a funny ad. With a joke in it.
So you admit that I'm not pulling stuff out of my ass when remarking on the black guy dies first thing?
Actually, I was talking about Dannichu's "99% of [heroes are] a middle-class, able-bodied, cisgendered, young, straight, white male".
If it's not common today, that's a good thing (though if the horror movies my dad brought home the other day are an indicator of anything, they still never make it to the end of the movie). Look to my earlier paragraph for examples of how minorities are still (god forbid) not on the same footing as white US Americans.
In fairness, not many people make it to the end of modern horror movies.
And like I keep saying, putting minorities to one side and saying "you can't joke about their names" isn't putting them on the same footing as white US Americans either.
When finding that name funny is coupled with treating them badly or making fun of them, yeah, there's a big fucking problem there.
But it's not necessarily coupled. I find the name "Prenderville" funny but that doesn't mean I treat my neighbours badly or make fun of them. And Zeta Reticuli apparently finds the name funny, but he doesn't go around bullying Hispanics.
They're not "never" given preferential treatment; it's just pretty rare compared to them being given a promotion on their own merits. Unless you mean to imply that minorities can't get promotions without any sort of preferential treatment, which is pretty offensive.
Explain how I could possibly be implying that.
