You know, the silly ones that people pass around at work?

Do people do that anymore?  Everything is computer now, but remember in the “old days” when people would pass around that crappy photocopy of a joke — often very racist or pornographic or sexist, etc. — and you’d find it funny so you’d make a copy and take it home and hand it off to the wife?  Remember those jokes?

I distinctly remember one that listed all these really bizarre terms for black people — “porch monkeys” comes to mind because the first time I saw it (hell, to this day!) I couldn’t quite get that one because *I* sat on the porch too … I didn’t think sitting on one’s porch was a “black” thing — anyhow, that horribly over the top list (it was done up like a memo for a government agency that was tasked with controlling the “problem”) — dammit Kate, will you STOP digressing — Aaaack!

Okay, list.  Derogatory (but often confusing) slang terms to be used to refer to black individuals.  That list, which I saw in my teens, is what immediately came to mind when I first read this article:

The same Homeland Security Department office that categorized veterans as potential terrorists issued an earlier report that defined dozens of “extremists” ranging from black power activists to abortion foes. The report was nixed within hours and recalled from state and local law enforcement officials.

Whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, Cubans and Mexicans, along with tax-hating Americans were among several political leanings listed in the “Domestic Extremism Lexicon” that came out of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) in late March.

The lexicon lists definitions for key terms and phrases used by Homeland Security analysts “that addresses the nature and scope of the threat that domestic, non-Islamic extremism poses to the United States,” the report said.

::snip!::

“The lexicon was not an authorized I&A product, and it was recalled as soon as management discovered it had been released without authorization,” said Amy Kudwa, Homeland Security spokeswoman.

“This product is not, nor was it ever, in operational use,” Ms. Kudwa said.

As I read that, I got to wondering “hey, you don’t suppose this is one of those joke things …” I mean seriously, can’t you just see it? Jim and Bob are joking over the cooler and next thing you know they’ve conspired outside of work — in TGIF’s bar, on cocktail napkins — over an “Official Lexicon”  that ‘addresses the nature and scope of the threat that domestic, non-Islamic extremism poses to the United States.’  In a burst of nostalgia, instead of emailing it, they type it up in MS Word, print off a dozen copies and pass it around the office. Or they email it and some fool prints the email to show his Aunt Bessie and Uncle Phil (who don’t have one of them high tech computer things).

Anyhow, what if that’s what this whole thing was? Doesn’t that sound equally plausible with the government considering “whites and blacks, Christians and Jews” et.al. to be potential terrorists?

Or maybe I’m just hoping, really hard.

Found it here. Wound up there.
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