The role of racism and stereotypes in jokes

The role of racism and stereotypes in jokes

Some languages replace the /r/ sound with the /l/ sound, but not under the same circumstances; sometimes, this behavior is a choice and other times it’s the rule. Puerto Ricans as spanish language speakers are distinguished by their /l/ at the ends of words and syllables. When non Puerto Rican speakers try to imitate this characteristic, they tend to missplace the replacement. Latino Rebels has a debate that compares the /l/ from Puerto Rican Spanish and Chinese languages. In December 27, 2019 they published an article concerning a new Chinese restaurant located in Santurce, Puerto Rico named “Aloz Flito”In the article. “New Chinese Food Place in Puerto Rico Defends Its Racist ‘ALOZ FLITO’ Name”, in general, the journalist states that the restaurant’s name is a “ racist stereotype of how Asian can’t their “r’s” and “l’s.”” , he sarcastically introduces us to Juan Peña Romero’s explanation about his concept, and finally adds that there’s still no debate about the restaurants name. On the other hand, El Vocero published that same day an article about the restaurant titled “Llega Aloz Flito a Santurce” by Melissa Cruz Ríos. Unlike Latino Rebels this article is much more descriptive, it give us information about: the concept, menu, design, veggie options, location, etc. In both articles the comments display Puerto Ricans who are in favor and others against the name. Later on we’re going to discuss the arguments from both of them. All this affair is caused by misinformation that makes people say and do things that could discomfort someone else and to demonstrate how this text is going to expose: some misconceptions that Juan Peña uses to defend his concept, explain a the Chinese phonetic rule that Peña brought up and compare it to our pronunciation, and finally mention how accents have different cultural values, in order to understand the normalization of racism in Puerto Rico as a joke.

At the interview with Juan Peña by Mírame siempre, the chef explains how Chinese people and Puerto Ricans both pronounce the /l/ instead of the /r/, therefore, this helped for: the fusion of the name, the food, and the logo. To clarify, in the chinese phonetic repertoire there’s no /r/, that means that loanwords that causes phonetic interference usually go through adaptation where the non-native sound is replaced by the closest sound in the recipients language. While in Puerto Rican Spanish the /r/ sound does exist, we just change the /r/ sound to the /l/ sound at the end of words and syllables which means that it is conditioned. Juan Peña chooses to defend his restaurant name by comparing the lambdacism from chinese people and the puerto rican stereotype giving examples like “velda” which do not go along with his argument. To sum up, it is possible that Puerto Ricans could say “puelto”, but never “lico”.

At the end of the interview Juan Peña wants the public to know that he’s not racist, “Primero hay que buscar el significado de la palabra racista, oye, yo soy negro”. The definition that Oxford give us is “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior”. The chef meant that since his skin color is black, there’s no way he could be racist because again, he minimize racism to something

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