Birther jokes and dismissing the victim.
It occurred to me as I was reading a couple of threads on the birther joke issue, what really steams me about the whole issue. We already know Romney is a racist. Of course, many of us didn't think he would go there and join the birther crowd, but who is really shocked? No, I wasn't shocked. Yes, I was angry it is yet another dog whistle, bullhorn, billboard to the racist faction of the GOP. But, when Romney said it was a joke, I felt a whole new level of anger that I couldn't quite identify.
When Romney said it was a joke he essentially was saying to the victims, "you have no sense of humor". It is the same bullshit that women are told when they can't take a sexist joke. It's the same bullshit that minorities and ethic groups are subjected to when people tell racist and or ethnic jokes, like come on man it was like just a joke. It is a way to deflect from the bigotry of the person telling the joke and adding an extra insult to the victim. The victim is told hey you would think this is funny if you weren't a woman, minority, member of an ethnic group, you people have no sense of humor. Then they go hey Bob, you think this is funny, right? They tell the joke again and sometimes Bob laughs hysterically. Sometimes Bob looks at the joker like he has three eyes and he gets the same dismissive attitude about his sense of humor. But, think about this, Romney told a joke, that would get him sent to Human Resources in many work places. Since the joke was on a public servant, maybe not. But, if that joke had been directed at an individual in the work place, he would be talking to an HR, person. Most work places have rules about racist jokes, why don't we have zero tolerance as a nation?