Comedy, Race, and the Intentional Miseducation of Amy Schumer

***Please note this article was originally published in July, 2015. However, with Amy Schumer and her most recent endeavor in racist rhetoric, this will never be an outdated discussion.*** I don’t get the concept that something can’t be offensive because it’s comedy. I mean, I get it, I just never agreed with it. Comedy, or rather being a stand-up comic, is to me the most difficult mainstream performing art there is. Even bad singers can seek technological aid at some point, but you can’t lip sync how funny you are. And being a stand-up comic is even more difficult because you often have no idea if you are any good until you’ve put yourself out there, naked, for the world to judge you in the most subjective way. So, I get where this idea of giving comedians as much rope as possible because of how hard the job is comes from, but let’s also consider the origins of who that applies to. Those “rules” or guidelines were established mostly by White male comedians who wanted the whole board to play with, and to be protected from scorn if they went too close to, or completely jumped over, the line. Which isn’t to say that comedians of other races or genders didn’t take advantage of that status quo — Eddie Murphy’s “Raw” is titled that way for a reason — but let’s not pretend the doctrine of giving comedians room to be offensive came out of nowhere or was floated down from the heavens. [quote_right]”Personally, I am grateful for many of the subjects that Schumer tackles and hope the…