I think it's a valid question. It seems nowadays no one can say anything on the edge or make a joke without someone being offended or it being related to some kind of "ism." Now don't get me wrong, I completely acknowledge the existence of racism and sexism in our country and think it's pathetic that it still exists, but has it gotten worse? Or are we just more sensitive?
The most recent controversy surrounds Ellen Degeneres. After Usain Bolt won yet another Olympic gold medal- making him the fastest man in the world- Ellen posted a picture of her on his back saying, "This is how I'm going to do my errands now." Now to me, this was clearly a joke because he's SO DARN FAST, I mean who wouldn't want to get to the grocery store in 19.98 seconds? But she has been receiving a lot of backlash for being racist because the picture portrays her riding a black man (see picture below).
Also receiving criticism is Blake Shelton. The country singer and resident "The Voice" judge has been in the tabloids recently for his tweets. Now anyone who has seen his Twitter before knows he is controversial, and tweets pretty much whatever he wants, so it was only a matter of time before someone took offense to them. The tweets (pictured below, cred: Jason Scott) are being described as "homophobic comments disguised as jokes," and there's no doubt that's essentially what it is. But these tweets were posted as far back as 2010. Yupp that's right, 6 count 'em 6 years ago, so why now are they all of a sudden a problem? Blake Shelton has been in the spotlight since before 2010, so it's not like millions of people didn't see them then, what is it about now?
Some things maybe walk the line, the tweets certainly do, but why were they "funny" (a word I use loosely) in 2010 and newsworthy now? We as a nation take offense to a lot more now. Maybe it is because of the popularity of social media. We pretty much have access to anything and everything we want to see, and can see the comments of people everywhere. Has this access to any and all comments tarnished our sense of humor? Do we take everything too personally? Has some of the trashy tabloids and overflow of ignorant comments made us too sensitive? That's up to you to decide, but let me tell you, it's a lot easier to just have a laugh every once in a while instead of getting riled up.
