No discrimination on race or gender
This presidential election has made even the hint of such discrimation practically toxic. But there’s one category of bigotry that’s not only still permitted, it’s become trendy.
Age discrimination. I’ve been saying this for weeks as the jokes about John McCain continue to ramp up across the media spectrum, and not only on the comedy shows. Now, Politico is saying it, too. Or…at least Jonathan Martin is.
There are few safe harbors these days for making fun of people. Race, gender, religion are all effectively off-limits.
Yet age is still deemed as an OK topic to joke about (perhaps because it’s something most everybody will eventually encounter and isn’t limited to one minority segment of society?).
McCain already knows this — he said the other day in Washington state that “anything’s fair game” in the biz — but just how much of a double-standard will there be in the outrage between the inevitable attacks on his age and Obama’s race?
Bingo. Consider that question.
And, as Martin suggests, plugging in Barack Obama’s name in all those jokes and turn age into race. Revealing, isn’t it?
But that doesn’t answer the question of why it’s so acceptable.
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Growing old is inevitable, and it ain’t always fun. So we humans make jokes about it, even as we know — or perhaps, because we know — that one day, we too will face the great inglorious decline ourselves. That doesn’t mean any joke about age is acceptable; as in all things, there are lines that can be crossed. Decent people will be mindful of this. But having a little fun with this universal aspect of the human condition seems completely understandable.
What’s amazing, here, is that you seem to think age and race are precisely comparable, when they aren’t in any way. John McCain is not old as Barack Obama is black (or I am white). Barack Obama’s “blackness” would not in any way regulate his continuing ability to perform perhaps the most challenging job in the world. On the other hand, while John McCain may indeed be and remain capable even as he advances well into his 70s, it is certainly an issue that should be explored. Because people do get old and they do decline (whereas they do not get black, or female, and decline).
If the point is not made, consider the fact that countless professions and positions mandate a retirement age, not a retirement race or retirement gender.