Lazere in Chapter 7 talks about stereotyping and prejudice. The section about prejudice talked about how it has been used in jokes and comic stand-up routines. The first person that popped to mind was Dave Chappelle. Stereotypes were the basis of a solid portion of the more memorable jokes on the show. As I look through my boxed sets of Season 1 and 2 and the episode descriptions, each seemed to have a racially or sexuality based skit. Hell, an entire episode was dedicated to Dave Chappelle's mock game show "I Know Black People" where contestants included a professor of African American studies and history, and NYC police officer, a writer for both the Chris Rock show and Chappelle's Show, a Korean store clerk, and white DJ, a social worker from Delaware, a white High School student who claimed that the majority of his schoolmates were black, and the lone black contestant a barber from Brooklyn. The questions ranged from things about black people in general such as lingo, things about the show Good Times and "why black people like menthol cigarrettes?" Suprisingly, the winner was the DJ who's grand prize was a can of hair grease, 2 bootleg DVDs and a pack of menthol cigarrettes. Oddly enough Chappelle has said on many instances one of the many reasons why he never came back for the much anticipated 3rd season was that he felt that he saw a white guy in his crew laughing in certain way in response to one of the more racially charged skits they had been working on for the season.

On that note, the piece by James Patterson and Peter Kim "Beverly Hills vs the South Bronx: The Day They Told the Truth on Rodeo Drive" examined the levels of morality "at two poles of American society." They sampled a few hundred people from both regions where even the difference of people surveyed showed a significant difference between the two. The jobs of those surveyed in the South Bronx held more noble jobs such as a clerk, a cook, a nurse aide, a teacher, and a cab driver to name a few. While the Beverly Hills sample include the president of an oil company, two film producers, an accountant, and a physician. The results of some questions such as the higher rates of homicide, rape and robbery in the South Bronx over Beverly Hills, and perhaps higher suicide rates in the Hills. Others such as Hills residents are more likely to commit adultery, hide crime, and own guns (even admitting to shooting people). They are also less to donate to charity considering that the area's average income is over 10 times that of the South Bronx. They concluded in their study that the majority of people in the South Bronx are honest, hardworking people trying to overcome the situation they've been dealt. Beverly Hills also has a high rate of drug use compared to the South Bronx. I wonder if any of them are stereotypical crackheads like Chappelle's Show favorite: Tyrone Biggums