The Indiana Daily Student Editorial Board loves comedy jokes.
Drop by one of our meetings and you might catch us riffing on the news and laughing at the riffs.
What you won’t hear is anyone yelling threatening or racist sexual fantasies about each other across the room.
Because that isn’t a fun joke.
That is harassment.
We only feel the need to clarify because comedian Artie Lange seems confused.
On Nov. 4, the comedian known for work on “MADtv” tweeted sexually explicit and racially charged fantasies at ESPN reporter Cari Champion, all in the name of #jokes.
About Champion, a black woman, he muses, “Here’s the scenario I’m using to jerkoff to chick on First Take I’m T. Jefferson and she’s my slave. She beats the shit out of me and runs free.”
Later he tweets his fantasies directly at Champion. “I attempt to whip @CariChampion cuz she disrespected the Jefferson Plantation, but she grabs whip and beats me I come like a fat founding ?father.”
These are just two of a string of tweets about and directed at Cari Champion.
Their disgusting and explicit nature sounded alarms for many people and groups, and all around there was outrage at his behavior and calls for TV shows and venues to cancel his appearances, which he did not take well.
When accused of harassment, Lange tweeted a beautiful non-apology.
You see, he observed that “@CariChampionwas a ?gorgeous lady.”
Apparently that warranted online harassment. Oh, yeah, and he “also noticed she was black.” Because he’s not ?racist. At all.
“I then thought it would be funny to tweet JOKES about that observation,” he said. “A decision which might be the end of modern ?comedy.”
Given the response to his “jokes,” we think that most modern comedians wouldn’t want their work lumped in with Lange’s behavior.
To Champion, he says, “if this hurt you in any way I’m sorry.”
He then complains about the “PC groups” who lost him his gig on the Comedy Central show “@Midnight.”
It’s not clear who the “PC groups” that Lange refers to are, but he blames them.
Because PC groups were the ones who sexually harassed a public figure and still don’t get why that was ?inappropriate.
Sure.
Lange seems entirely unaware of his own ?inappropriateness.
Moreover, his apology to Champion indicates he’s not sorry he did it, only sorry he might have damaged his chances at a relationship with her, which we believe might have never been in his cards.
Champion has not responded to his tweets or spoken about the issue.
Explaining sexual harassment to men such as Lange, who cites six white men and Richard Pryor as his comedy heroes, has long been a struggle for the women who ?experience it.
Suffice it to say, women usually aren’t excited to hear your sexual fantasies about them.
Especially when they’re at work.
Especially when they don’t know you.
Sexual harassment is not funny or flattering — it’s ?vicious.
It tells women that the public spaces they inhabit are under the control of people who want to hurt or violate them.
It tells them they are, at all times, sexual objects, only there to please the men around them.
Moreover, if a woman does not respond well to an instance of sexual harassment, she could be in danger of physical harm or even being killed.
That Lange did this so publicly means he must be publicly shamed, otherwise it will be a condonation of this behavior. And just because Lange has a right to say what he wants, does not mean he gets to keep his TV spots.
Sexual fantasies themselves aren’t wrong.
Fulfilling sexual fantasies with a consenting partner can be a wonderful experience for all involved.
Telling a stranger or someone with whom you are not sexually involved your fantasies about them is a violation.
Lange’s tweets are likely only a few of many reminders Champion gets that she is a black woman working in a male-dominated industry.
Reminders that many of her viewers will see her as nothing but eye candy.
That some people will look at her and still, even after a hundred years, think “slave.”
It’s a reminder that no matter how hard a woman works, there will always be a man pulling her power out from under her.
Like most women, Champion will continue to be harassed online, on the street and in the workplace.
And it will never be funny.
