this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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I think a lot of the time it's Gen Z not understanding context. There was overt racism, but a lot of media that is considered racist now was either depicting the experience of people at the time or making fun of racists.
Blazing Saddles. Took me a bit to understand this when I was younger. When I first saw it, I thought it was simply outdated humor. Then I thought it was edgy. Then I finally grasped that the whole joke is actually directed at racist white folks and that their racism just makes them look really stupid.
The quintessential example. Rocky Horror is another.
I'd also include the controversy around "Baby It's Cold Outside".
The irony is that in fully understanding the song and the culture of the time it was written in, the song is literally the opposite of what the outrage junkies made of it. They think it's a song about a guy keeping a woman at his place against her will (the notion that he actually drugged her drink (and in such a way that she could tell by tasting it) is especially hilarious) through subtle intimidation, and that rape is apparently imminent.
But in fact, it's a very empowering (especially for its time, ~80 years ago) song about a woman who defies social/cultural norms/rules to do what she wants and go ahead and spend the night at this guy's place:
More detail here.
P.S. Also, the original songwriter wrote the song specifically for him and his wife to perform together for friends at a housewarming party. It wasn't even considered to be released commercially until it became a huge hit at parties that they were invited to specifically to perform it. The idea that it's a predatory date rape song is extra ridiculous with that context, aside from everything else.
Yes, that's all true.
But its no different from the other examples I gave. All three of those are empowering art that modern listeners take out of context and get offended by.
OMG! He's pressuring her into sex!
The song has a line where the girl asks what's in her drink. You can interpret that however you want.
Not if you want to be accurate:
I'm not debating that at all. I'm merely pointing out that we live in a post-Cosby society.
She knows exactly what's in the drink.
The context is that she doesn't want to leave.
Now multiply that misunderstanding by 1 billion.
I'd say that's mostly true for comedy. But some of the earlier stuff was definitely like "point and laugh at this race". Like the original looney tunes and stuff had some that were rough. They got better about it later but those early episodes had a few that were a little...close lol
But that wasn't in the '90s. The last thing I can actually think of as an example of point-and-laugh at a race was Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). In the '80s there was Dukes of Hazzard, but it wasn't overtly racist, they just only had black people as bad guys in the deep South. As a kid that went right over my head.
I think most examples in the '90s would be stereotyping races but not making fun of them. Overtly. Kind of like the token Asian or the token black guy to fill out a group of friends. I guess I want more examples to be given because when you're younger a lot of that stuff goes of your head compared to when you're older.
Boss Hogg and Cletus were white villains.
Sorry my statement wasn't that the only villains were black people, but rather that when black people were on the show they were always villains.
I'll take your word on that.
Separate but related. I just looked at the cast from the 80s. There is a distinct lack of black actors in general.
Oh yea some of it was definitely just overt racism.
Yeah, if you find an overly racist character then the joke is probably directed at them being racist.
It's amazing how many people are offended by Uncle Ruckus. Like, way more than are offended by Uncle Remus, incredibly enough.
The Boondocks just isn't a show for the emasculated generation.
Id be careful blaming the newer generation. That's what those snowflake boomers did, saying shit like, "Oh those millennials... We can't even make a joke anymore" because their jokes suck ass, those little bitches.
Well Gen Z is quite young. Children understand trigger-words more, subtle context less so.
The very youngest of gen z is 15 right now, and the majority is adults
I'm only just beginning to understand what L.P Hartley meant when he said "The past is a foreign country"
Ageism on Lemmy, impossible.
As the other commenter has said, the youngest gen z aren't children anymore - they're teens.