Would this be racist?

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Okay there is a thread in random discussion called "Make an extremely dark joke."

When I heard this joke it was told by my grandfather. But in his version it was about a Mexican that only spoke Spanish who robbed a bank in Texas. And I was afraid if I told it that way it would be called racist. So I changed it to a French Canadian that only spoke French who robbed a bank in Maine.

Here is the joke I posted:
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A French Canadian robs a bank in a small town in Maine.

He hides the money under the porch of an abandoned farmhouse.

A day later he is apprehend.

A translator is brought in since he only speaks French.

The police chief interrogates the man through the translator for hours with no results.

The frustrated chief pulls out a handgun, cocks the hammer and puts the gun to the man's head.

He tells the translator to tell the man if he does not tell him where he hid the money he us going to blow his brains out.

The man knows the chief is serious and quickly gives the translator detailed information on how to retrieve the money.

The translator then looks at the angry police chief and says, "Francois says that he is not afraid to die".
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The point of the joke is that only the translator understood what was said, rather than it having anything having to do with race.

So was I right to change it? Would it have been racist if I had not?

I think when it comes to jokes, many of them especially in older joke books rely on stereotypes, culture and race for their humour. A 1970s British comedy series revolved entirely around a group of foreign students learning English and most of the humour stems from cliched but funny national stereotypes.

After all you get the blonde jokes, the preacher and Rabbi ones etc...

I don't think most of them cross the line into offensive. People should be able to laugh at themselves.

IMO, it wasn't racist either way. Mexicans don't have a stereotype of being criminals, from what I understand, and I didn't detect anything else. I thought it was a good joke. You didn't have to explain it to me. I got it after a second of reflection.

I don’t think it’s racist in either form either, I tend to think these things depend on the substantial core of the joke.
In this case it’s the language barrier, and the advantage the interpreter takes that is the substance: no racial content there at all.
Which is proven by it working fully with the ethnic switcheroo.

If it's racist, substituting one group for another doesn't really address that problem.

Personally, I wouldn't call it a racist joke, the joke isn't about race, it's just about not being able to communicate. Of course I might be biased, I laughed.

I am sure I can rewrite it to make it sound racist if that is your goal, but the way you tell it, it sounds ok.

I don't think it's racist. The only person who is maligned is the interpreter.

Maybe it's interpreterist?

Oh wait, the chief wanted to shoot the thief's brains out.

So it's policist.

say Francois is a Mexican illegal alien

imagine a group of white people laughing at the idea of a non-English speaking, "undocumented", Mexican about to have his blown off

It's racist to presume that both the chief and the interpreter are white Americans, just because they speak English.

The chief threatens someone's life, and the interpreter is a lying, manipulative SOB.

So are French-Canadians.

Even if all three men are white, the two who conspire for murder are more corrupt than a bank robber.

They should be judged more harshly than the thief.

Maybe they're French-Canadian, too. Who knows.

My point is that behaviour trumps race or background.

Tell him from me, he’s a baboon. (Translator jokes probably go back to ancient times.)


By this time their destined victim appeared from his cabin. He was a small and dark, but rather delicate looking man for a [French] sea-captain, with large whiskers and moustache, however; and wore a red cotton velvet vest with watch-seals at his side. To this gentleman, Stubb was now politely introduced by the [bilingual] Guernsey-man, who at once ostentatiously put on the aspect of interpreting between them.

“What shall I say to him first?” said he.

“Why,” said Stubb, eyeing the velvet vest and the watch and seals, “you may as well begin by telling him that he looks a sort of babyish to me, though I don’t pretend to be a judge.”

“He says, Monsieur,” said the Guernsey-man, in French, turning to his captain, “that only yesterday his ship spoke a vessel, whose captain and chief-mate, with six sailors, had all died of a fever caught from a blasted whale they had brought alongside.”

Upon this the captain started, and eagerly desired to know more.

“What now?” said the Guernsey-man to Stubb.

“Why, since he takes it so easy, tell him that now I have eyed him carefully, I’m certain that he’s no more fit to command a whale-ship than a St. Jago monkey. In fact, tell him from me he’s a baboon.”

“He vows and declares, Monsieur, that the other whale, the dried one, is far more deadly than the blasted one; in fine, Monsieur, he conjures us, as we value our lives, to cut loose from these fish.”

It doesn't say that the translator is a man. Perhaps this joke is actually sexist against her.

Or maybe the translator is the only man and the setting is a future female run dystopia dreamt up by Margaret Atwood’s opposite equivalent.
So it’s mannist

^Mwahahaha!