Fight Fair, N*gger

Both my grandfathers, as well as my grandmothers, were, I think indisputably, racially bigoted. The racism that infected the majority of Americans of their generation certainly did not miss Utah. My father has talked of how he and his sister went swimming in a public pool as children, but were forbidden to ever return after their mother, to her horror, saw some "Negro" children swimming in the same water. I personally witnessed my mother's father, on several occasions, turn off the television in disgust whenever scenes involving black folks confronted him.

Fortunately, my own parents managed to (mostly) overcome the prejudices their parents' seemed intent to thrust upon them. As an example, and for the benefit of posterity, consider the following "joke" my grandfather used to tell (and which I remember hearing myself on a few occasions before he died), which was, I think, indicative of the attitudes and comical sensibilities of his generation:

"Once the Romans pitted a n*gger against a lion in a fight at the Coliseum. This n*gger was an especially strong and clever one, however, so the Romans decided to bury him up to his neck in the ground.

Unleashed, the lion charged at the n*gger, and by damn, he turned his head just in time to make the lion miss. Boos and hisses poured out from the crowd as the lion turned to try to take out his opponent, but I'll be damned if that clever little n*gger didn't dodge that lion again!

Shaking his head, the lion charged directly at the buried n*gger to the cheers of the expectant Romans. As the lion soared over him, the n*gger saw his chance, opened his mouth, and caught hold of the lion's testicles in his teeth!

Furious with rage, the crowd took to their feet and screamed: 'Fight fair, N*gger! Fight fair!'"

Upon completing the joke, grandpa would laugh himself silly.