Reply #169: If it's done in the context of a close friendship, and both joke with each

[Maddy McCall]

other, I don't see a problem with it. But ONLY if both joke with each other.

My dad is riding around today with his best friend, who's African American. They ALWAYS joke back and forth with each other about race issues. Now, would my dad be the first to defend him if someone insulted him? Yes. Would my dad's black friend be the first to defend my dad if someone insulted him? Yes.

I have no doubt that my dad is the least racist person I know. And his African American friend knows this as well as I do. Victor, my dad's best friend, really ribs my dad good, too.

It's an openness in their relationship--about their friendship and about race--that many people can't understand.

And Victor is no Uncle Tom, by any means. He's proud of his heritage. He and my dad accept each other as they are, and part of that acceptance is the way they joke with each other.

Victor and Dad were up here on the 40 acres where I live last week, unloading wood that they had just retrieved from the sawmill. Victor winked at me and said, "Damn, your dad is a cracker." I replied, "Yeah, well you should have been raised by him."

That's the way they pick back and forth. I don't see anything wrong with it at all, and I'd wager that my dad's and Victor's friendship would make most DUers enviable, if they could see them together.