joke made by my examinations officer today....

loled irl a little bit. Funny joke reading it out.

I don't think she'd get into trouble for it - maybe told not to say anything not strictly related to the exam, but I think the interpretations of the comment could save her anything more serious.

You could interpret the comment as meaning 'those names were pretty difficult to pronounce, the other occasion when I have trouble pronouncing words is when I'm ordering a takeaway' - Rather than trying to manufacture an offensive meaning (but tbh it's not really offensive - it's just a funny comment, not really racism now) of 'all Chinese people are good for is working in takeaways, what with their inferior brains and all'. I think the many ways of interpreting that comment should leave her safe.
 
An Italian lecturer I had last year, genuinely referred to a group of chinese students as "yellow faces" to their faces, I was genuinely shocked. Nothing came of it though...
 
I would have laughed.

So would my Asian mates.

In fact the only people who wouldn't are the human rights PC OMGeezlez brigade, or whatever they are called today, who seem to think that they decide what should or shouldn't be found funny, even by the people it is supposedly meant to be racist towards...

Disclaimer: post may not be entirely serious :p
 
It is also interesting seeing the reaction of the racial majority concerning a joke made about a racial minority (obviously with a few notable exceptions).

I personally believe political correctness has run amok in the UK but also believe that teachers should not be throwing around racist comments or at the very least, comments based on racial stereotypes.

To reverse the stereotype, would it also be ok for the teacher to have said after reading out what are traditionally regarded as English names something like "It's like standing in a police line-up after a football match" or "I feel like I have just taken a wrong turn and ended up in a council estate". Would it still be ok if it was a teacher of Chinese ethnicity who said it ?. Would it still be ok if it was in a class with 15 Chinese students and only two Caucasian students. Would you just laugh it off ?.

Where I am it is the other way round as I am in the racial minority. There are a max of 40k Caucasians here or 0.8% of the population and I am now one of the 'other' people when putting down race.

I get called a number of things by locals and they don't see it as insulting, just a term of reference like 'A white' for example. Imagine people doing that in the UK and the outcry that would result.

So back to the teacher.... my personal view is that someone should have a private word with her suggesting she may want to be a bit more careful. Just because people laugh, doesn't mean they like it.

RB
 
Probably the age has a part to play - I was invigilating an exam last week and the supervisor told me that "that darkie" didn't have his university card on him. Of course, the white bloke was "the chap in the blue coat"!
 
Although everyone was laughing and hopefully no one took offence, it was a foolish thing to say. You just cannot say things like that nowadays.
 
Unintentional racism with a small 'r' in my book. It doesn't sound malicious but she sounds terribly out of date with what's appropriate and what's not, particularly to younger, impressionable people.

ALso be interesting to see if the Chinese students were laughing out of nervousness/disbelief or because of genuine amusement.
 
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