With political correctness run amok, an Irishman who runs a magazine in southwest England has resigned amid protests over Irish jokes he printed.
Denis Lusby, editor of the community magazine which sells about 500 copies in the Cornish villages of Blisland and Saint Breward, quit after a complaint by the head of Cornwall’s equality and diversity service, Ginny Harrison-White.
“I can understand why racism laws have been tightened up, but it has given loads of powers to people to take it to extremes,” said the 58-year-old, adding: “The Irish are the first to have a joke at themselves.”
Harrison-White wrote to local schools asking if they approved of community news being printed next to “such derogatory material.”
She said the jokes used racist language or ridicule as defined in anti-racism laws, adding that they could influence children’s attitudes. She called on schools to urge Lusby to remove the jokes.
Lusby, who moved from Northern Ireland in 1969 to get away from the sectarian violence, dismissed accusations of racism over the jokes, which typically involved people called O’Toole, Murphy and Gallagher.
He said the magazine also published jokes about people from Essex — who like the Irish have long been the butt of English humour — adding: “To be accused of racism, specifically anti-Irish, has hurt me very deeply.”
I've always thought that many of these sorts of off-color jokes are protested because there's another truth behind them. For example, many supporters of illegal immigration hate any jokes like the following:
Question: Do you know what Mexico gives welfare applicants?
Answer: A map with directions to the United States.
Many of these ethnic jokes contain references to drinking, laziness, and wife-beating. I don't know that I like such jokes, but it seems to me that if you want to ensure the attractiveness of such humor, just make a fuss over it.
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