Over 2 weeks ago, I was at a party talking to [guy1] in a sauna when he brought up AI, and I made a joke about it standing for actually Indian.
Today, I received a text message from someone in the sauna which I’ve copied below with edited names.
> Hi [me], [guy1] and [guy2]
> [Text sender] here. We were all in a sauna together briefly on [date redacted]. Unfortunately during that time [me] made a racist joke that [guy1] laughed excessively hard at, and [guy2] and I stayed silent about. “AI stands for Actually Indian” really made my friend, [person4], (an Indian national who we were in there with) uncomfortable and offended.
> Initially, I was surprised by the comment, but not sure how it was directly racist. It was the long 90 seconds of laughter that made it profoundly uncomfortable. I wish I had spoken up and told you I didn’t think it was funny. After further reflection last week, I feel that the comment was akin to associating Jews with control over financial markets- a stereotype that paints a target on their back. Whether or not you follow me through that simile, I hope I’m conveying that the conversation negatively affected [person4], the only non-white person in the sauna.
> I am not looking for a particular response here, but I hope next time I’m in that situation I speak up properly. We should not be using other nationalities as punchlines.
> Thanks for hearing me out, [text sender]
I don’t believe in the whole "people these days are too sensitive" and all that culture war nonsense, but I really don’t think that was an offensive joke or attacking Indian people, it was a reference to ∆mazon Go and other news stories I’ve read about companies lying about using AI/automation but really just hiring underpaid labor in other countries. Did I tell an offensive racist joke? Am I the asshole??
well on one hand it is a racist joke. It is a joke at the expense of someone’s race or nationality. On the other hand there have been quite a few instances of this actually being the case (where an AI platform was discovered to be just a group of folks in a office farm being behind the whole thing) I can see where it seems harmless but it can still be offensive to others.
Info: I think I need to know whether or not it was you laughing for “90 seconds” at your own joke.
Or if the sender was exaggerating it.
I mean, whether or not youre the asshole depends on what you do next. It was a racially charged joke and you made people uncomfortable.
I would apologize and learn to read the room (or sauna in this case)
NTA if you apologize and use this as teachable moment. YTA if you double down.
YTA. You should have had a look around the sauna and read the room. Now apologize.
YTA. You made a distasteful joke and made someone uncomfortable.
Unless your Indian, YTA
YTA
From what you’ve shared, I don’t think there was a conscious racist intent behind telling the joke but I can absolutely see how it comes off as casually racist to people who might have a history of dealing with a lot of negative sentiment about technology and being Indian.
It’s also the kind of joke that people who *do* have problems with Indians will tell and it’s setting the stage for further jokes of that kind. That’s where the laughter comes in. What that signals is that jokes that involve people’s nationalities are not only socially acceptable in that space but welcomed and it gives the social cue that often leads to edgier and edgier jokes within a social space.
YTA that was racist.
YTA. You don’t think it’s a racist joke??
Explain why you think the joke is funny and then reevaluate.
The joke being that companies are saying they’re going to replace jobs with automation but find they’re incapable of doing so and outsource it to poorly paid people in another country. Is it a joke with race in it? Yes. Should I have told it in front of an Indian person? Probably not, which is why I apologized to that person before making a post on reddit. Is it racist? I fail to see where the joke is saying anything about Indians being less than human or denigrating their culture/ethnicity.
NTA, but I also believe in the whole “people these days are too sensitive”. I think there are plenty of racist jokes that are inappropriate, but this doesn’t meet the bar for me
There have been multiple examples of companies claiming something is being handled by AI, when actually in was done by offshore staff in India: [Amazon Go](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-04-03/the-humans-behind-amazon-s-just-walk-out-technology-are-all-over-ai), [Builder.ai](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/how-this-billion-dollar-london-startup-backed-by-microsoft-made-700-engineers-sitting-in-india-pose-as-ai/articleshow/121572659.cms), [SpinVox](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/06/artificial-intelligence-ai-humans-bots-tech-companies), [X.ai](https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2020/04/04/artificial-or-human-intelligence-companies-faking-ai/), [Clara Labs](https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2020/04/04/artificial-or-human-intelligence-companies-faking-ai), etc. It’s a thing
If it offended \[person4\], it is worth apologizing to them for an unintended insult, but I don’t think you are an asshole or that the joke is racist
PS: I think if one was “not sure how it was racist” and it took a week of reflection to figure that out, maybe it wasn’t very racist
NTA, consider if you want these people to be your friends; they don’t exactly sound like top class social material