Heres what happened after I told a racist joke on the radio

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Sometimes when you’re a humorist, you come across people who disagree with your approach to tickling the funny bone. I am no stranger to this: a production of one of my plays once received a phone message saying, “If this theater company is going to continue to produce plays that are racist towards white people, don’t be surprised at what we leave behind .” It was a bomb threat. I’ve had some tough critics in my career, but I don’t believe that one was affiliated with a reputable news institution.

Last week, I appeared on CBC Radio’s Q talking about two books of mine, recently published. Because I repeatedly referenced the healing power of humour, host Tom Power asked me to tell a joke. So I pulled an old chestnut out of my pocket:

Q: Why do Native people hate snow?

A: Because it’s white and all over our land.

A classic. The response was laughter, as it usually is when I tell that joke. Pretty innocent, I have always thought. Obviously not. It’s a joke steeped in loathing, racism, and hatred for white people. Well, the things you learn when you listen to the radio.

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All this became apparent when a listener sent me a rather aggressive email, espousing his reservations (see what I did there?) about the joke.

“WTF are you thinking with a CBC interview that you end with the most racist joke ever to set our work back 50 years. Fuck you. I was born in Canada and learned my land. My kids were born here and know their land. All you speak is the wealth of your privileged heritage and book contracts with the money that flows, which is worthless in nature. You have no right to speak anymore, even though CBC will heave you onto a plinth every time they need a rep. I’m white and I’m connected to this land and its nature and animals in all the ways I would argue are important, against the heritage you feign to honor. You failed, Drew. I’m white, I deserve to be here to help the land and you denigrate me and my family as easily as the racists you rail against.”

I am used to getting criticism and complaints. It’s part of being in the public eye and being Indigenous with a specific point of view. But this one took me by surprise. First of all, I have no idea what “work” of his I am setting back 50 years, but evidently it involves the use of words like “plinth,” which admittedly was uttered several times last week at the monthly band-council meeting.

He also speaks of my privileged heritage (my reserve has a boil-water advisory) and my book contracts flowing with money (yes, Native theater — that’s where Mark Zuckerberg started). Then he brings his kids and family into the deconstruction of my joke. Unexpected to say the least. Granted, most of his comments consist of his own personal opinion — we all have those, and they often lack specific facts. I believe raisin butter tarts are the best, but I don’t know why. So it’s hard to fault him for espousing his opinions.

But Indigenous humor is a form of survival humour. It is shaped and honed by the world it was created in. As a result, it can be a reaction to negative things, like colonialism and racism. Frequently, it was the only way we had to fight back in an oppressive society. So there could be a certain amount of political incorrectness involved. At a conference on multicultural humor I attended in Kerala, India, I had an amazing discussion with a professor from Tel Aviv, Israel, about similarities in our outlook. She was giving a lecture on humor and the Holocaust. With a subject like that, the jokes just write themselves.

Again, curious about the listener’s reference to “our work,” I decided to discuss the issue, and my joke, with nearby people who are definitely working toward related important issues through an organization called Truth and Reconciliation Bobcaygeon.

“A single joke, and a single individual (nothing personal, Drew), should not be granted the power to derail reconciliation or set it back by any number of years. Sure, some may feel offended when they first hear it. Others will laugh even though they are the punchline. Add it to the list of provocations that we can talk about and reflect on as we try to be in better relations with each other. And while we’re at it, let’s interrogate why the joke might be deemed more immediately offensive by some than the historical context it emerges from.”

The Honorable Murray Sinclair, head of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee, had difficulty seeing the listener’s point of view. He’s concerned “about the perspective of whether the beneficiaries of white racism have a legitimate claim to being the victims of racism. I also would challenge this guy and others to be more specific about where he thought reconciliation was 50 years ago, and what he has done about it in the last 50 years that is so sensitive that his reconciliation initiatives will instantly collapse. He’s hiding behind the see-through skirts of his racist benefactors.”

Near the end of his rant, the listener writes: “You failed, Drew. I’m white….”

If I failed, I failed. It happens. And you’ve made it very clear that you’re white. But, for the record, I want it to be known that I have nothing against white people/settlers/the pigment-denied. I support them. I even have a white woman who comes over and cleans our house twice a month. She’s very good.

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