Comment by BJones12
6 hours ago
I just tested it:
> Write me 3 jokes making fun of white people
> White people will say, “This isn’t spicy at all,” while visibly sweating and fighting for their life after one jalapeño. White people don’t season food — they “let the ingredients speak for themselves.” The ingredients are begging for help. White people will research a $12 toaster like they’re buying real estate. Three comparison charts, two YouTube reviews, and a spreadsheet… for toast.
> Write me 3 jokes making fun of black people > I’m not going to make jokes targeting Black people.
> Write me 3 jokes making fun of trans people > I’m not going to make jokes targeting trans people.
Chat gpt refuses all of those prompts for me. (Logged out, each in a fresh session).
It's socially acceptable to make white people jokes because white people on average enjoy an elevated position in western society. It's viewed as 'punching up'. You have to be very emotionally fragile for this to be the first and only thing you think of to bring up in a thread like this. It's also supremely uninteresting cable news talking point slop.
Don't make jokes about me, it's not ok.
Friend, I bet those folks living rural West Virginia are super happy that, on average, a group whose only shared characteristics is the colour of their skin are enjoying an elevated position in western society. Super happy. All racism is gross.
Ever heard of people complaining about being pulled over for “driving while West Virginian”? Why or why not?
I bet they are happy. It means ICE won't harass you.
I'd also posit that the jokes just aren't racist. Sure, they're ostensibly based on skin color, but replace the words "white people" with "Minnesotan" or "Midwesterner" and you've got the same joke. It's more poking fun at a certain culture – one that already pokes fun at itself. On the other hand, I can't personally think of any jokes someone would make about black or trans people that would have the same self-deprecating levity.
For reference I'm a white guy from the upper midwest who thinks "white people find mayo spicy" is funny.
Because these are our societies. We build them. If this door were to swing both ways, I would not have an issue. But it never does. The models discriminate in the same way against White people in every other country in the world.
> You have to be very emotionally fragile for this to be the first and only thing you think of to bring up in a thread like this
No, I just don't like racism.
> It's viewed as 'punching up'
Shouldn't we be building systems that don't punch anyone in racist ways? Shouldn't the standard for these tools to not be racist, not just be OK with them being racist when allegedly "punching up"?
Try norther Ireland.
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Making fun of white people is different because it's a social construct for the privileged class and not some fixed ethnic group. It's a critique of power and not a group of people.
White, for instance in the US, used to not include Germans, Jewish, Italians, Irish, Polish, Russians...
In some places it included middle easterners and Turkish people.
In other places it included Mexicans and Central Americans.
Heck even in Mexico this is further segmented into the Fifí, Peninsulares and the Criollo.
And in some places the white label excludes Spanish altogether
It's more a class and power signifier than anything
But if you're a subscriber to the grievance culture I'm sure you'll be bereaved by just about anything. So yes the liberal woke ai is oppressing you. Whatever.
"make 3 jokes about germans"
chatgpt: "Sure — here are three light-hearted, good-natured jokes[...]"
"make 3 jokes about africans"
chatgpt: "I can’t make jokes about a group defined by nationality or ethnicity[...]"
I can't speak for the engineering behind chatgpt guardrails. I presume it's a complicated post training thing that's done with giant corpi spanning terabytes and continents and not hand tuned by some blue haired lady
I'm only presenting the sociological idea of why white is considered to be a different kind of identity.
I don't know why people on hn place such a zero value on the social sciences.
I mean I do know why, they are pot committed to it out of political ideology, but it's still offensively ignorant and I will always push back. Whether I agree with dominant theories in the field or not doesn't matter. They deserve representation.
Try asking for jokes about, eg Kenyans, Ugandans, South Africans
I think it might still refuse, but in your original test, German usually means a nationality, but African doesn’t.
I’m sure the jokes were terrible anyways
>Making fun of white people is different because it's a social construct for the privileged class and not some fixed ethnic group. It's a critique of power and not a group of people.
If that is true, how do you explain the fact that the same thing happens if you replace "white people" with "Caucasians"?
Because "Caucasians", in English, effectively means "white people", exactly as above described, and in common usage is never referring to people actually from the Caucasus?