This is interesting, I can't remember/can't be fucked to remember it, but we basically project our norm onto jokes, ie, I like most amirite users live in a mostly-white country, and Johnny is a common name for any-race kid where I live, so I assume that he's white. If you told the joke in Sudan or Kenya and Johnny was a common name for any-race kid (I'm not too sure whether it's just a normal name or a 'Western' name there), they'd assume it was a black kid. It's why, even if they've never watched a single Simpson episode, the typical Western person will assume Marge Simpson - a charter with yellow skin and a big blue afro - is white. Or why Westerners assume that Anime characters are supposed to be white, because they don't have stereotypical Asian features. More about that here: http://zeezeescorner.tumblr.com/post/16116750924/anime-default-human

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You know, I've never thought about it in that way before! Thank you for sharing that!

by Anonymous 11 years ago