Is Black-White Friendship Site Offensive or Funny?
Nov. 25 -- In an array of photos on their Web site, a white couple named Sally and Johnny are sipping wine and joking around with African-American friends, boasting that they have figured out how to befriend black people.
The site, blackpeopleloveus.com, includes a number of "testimonials," from the couple's black friends about how great they are.
"Sally loves to touch my hair!" one black woman who wears dreadlocks writes. "She always asks me how I got my hair to do this. That makes me feel special. Like I have magical powers!
Another "friend" writes that the couple often ask him to decipher rap lyrics and black slang.
"Sally and Johnny give me ample opportunities to translate rap lyrics, reggae songs, and/or street slang!" he writes. "Like I'm a mouthpiece for many, many cultures of dark-skinned people."
The site's creators, Chelsea Peretti, a 24-year-old stand-up comedian, and her brother, Jonah Peretti, a 28-year-old Web designer, say they meant for their Web site to be a joke.
They say they didn't think everyone would find the comedy within their site, but they didn't want to offend or anger anyone.
"I think when you're using humor, it's not something that everyone will think is funny," Chelsea said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.I don't think humor is always a universal thing. If everyone thought it was funny, I would be surprised," she said.
Site Points Up Stereotypes
Chelsea and her brother are both white, but they grew up with a black stepmother. They say they have seen racial misunderstandings close up. The Web site was created as a satirical look at the way some whites unintentionally condescend to and offend African-Americans in clumsy attempts to "relate."
"For me and Jonah, we were raised with humor as somewhat of a survival skill and a way of securing things that you are uncomfortable with," Chelsea said.
Jonah says he asssumed it would be controversial on some level, but he says they never meant to make light of a very serious subject.
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