One of the funnier jokes I've heard is:

"How do you stop black kids from jumping on the bed?"
"Put Velcro on the ceiling."

I would never tell this joke to anyone out of fear of being labeled racist. Is that progress? Am I more tolerant and that's a good thing, or am I a coward who is giving in to political correctness? The joke doesn't imply that blacks are inferior, just that they tend to have curly hair. And they do. But I feel like the joke must be racist because it's about race.

If a black comedian told the joke I would laugh without reservation.
Their kids, or their family's kids.

If a white comedian/ person told the joke, you wonder why they are worried about black kids jumping on their bed. What, you think all black kids gonna break in your house and jump on your clean white sheets? You saying black kids got no bed of their own to jump on?? (not really the way I speak or even think, but you know)

So again, it's down to perception.
IF there is a social imbalance, it makes things more tricky. It's not innocent humour any more.

Unless you want to go for the balls-out [Frankie Boyle-style] joke with "How do you stop black kids jumping on the bed? Shoot the house-robbing little MFs as soon as they're over your property line."

*runs for shelter*

That was my first thought but discarded it, as I'm too old and fat to run. :haha:

Simply take race out of the joke.

"How do you stop kids with curly hair from jumping up and down on the bed?"

"Put Velcro on the ceiling."

Not quite as funny, but, there ya go. It's a slippery slope.

Is there a ready equivalent, in terms of tone and type of humour, about a white kid?

Genuine question. My first thought was that the reason it is a bit dodgy is that the focus is on the kid's blackness. Bear in mind there are two or three centuries in our history of cultural focus on the features of black faces and bodies as signifiers of both otherness and inferiority. One of the features that tended to be focused on and exaggerated in cartoons was big lips - another was the afro hair. We are used, as a culture, to viewing black bodies in a particular way and often that way is humorously.

At an individual level, the joke is not founded on any kind of racism and there is nothing inherently negative about it. It isn't hateful - it doesn't rely on any sense of cruelty or superiority. Our brains just go there - and we find it funny. But - it is a place we are culturally primed to go to. We notice the afro hair as a thing to focus on, because we are culturally primed to notice those features in a particular way.

Ummmm.... I think it depends on your POV.

I'm white, and so I don't have a direct connection with people telling me
my hair is funny or nappy or in some other sense "bad".

But over the years "hair" inside the American Black community has become a very important issue
... a "family value" to a point of being a source of embarrassment.

Hair straighteners, hair lighteners, special hair "do's" may be out of sight of the white community,
but from a very early age children are judged by Blacks on the texture of their hair.
Children, especially girls, with soft curls are often told they have "good" hair.
Others are told their hair is "hard"

As a Black child grows up with such comments, such remarks
can have an effect on how "jokes" about Black hair are perceived.
At each incidence then, that person must decide how to respond
...with laughter, silence, or anger.

.

Sorry - I should have been clearer. I meant at an individual level the joke teller is not coming from a place of racism or negativity.

Sometimes culture makes a joke un-tellable for awhile, and it's just timing and there's nothing you can do about it. You know my story about my mom and the confederate soldier cemetery? Can't tell that one on stage anymore, I'm guessing for at least three years. That's just how it is. There really is such a thing as "too soon," and that timeframe doesn't get to be determined by the individual, only the group as a whole.

On the subject of borderline racist jokes, here's one from my daughter's joke book for kids:

What do you call a mariachi band in quicksand?

Quatro Sinko.

Is it funnier if you say "four Mexicans" instead? Is it more racist?

Not for the Velcro joke. White kids can't jump.

:jig:

Heheheh. Nice.

:D - well played

Here's one.

:p:

I think the line is crossed when it becomes a matter of policy - a ban.

Otherwise, freedom of speech goes both ways - people can joke about anything, and other people can comment protest or whine about how those jokes are offensive. Who is right? Probably orange, but that doesn't matter. The conversation goes both ways, and freedom of speech means neither get a right to have the last say. The freedom of people to be assholes is going to be intertwined with the freedom of people to call each other assholes.