Veteran Jewish comedian Jackie Mason has plunged the BBC’s Desert Island Discs into the centre of a race row by claiming that ‘Jewish and black people’ are no longer the victims of racial discrimination.

Mason, 75, who is regarded as one of the world’s greatest stand-up comedy stars, said some minority groups wrongly believe they are still being persecuted because of an inability to escape the past.

In an edition of the Radio  4 show to be broadcast today, the New York-born star says: ‘I wouldn’t say the Jews or the blacks today are suffering from racism.

‘I don’t think it’s such a terrible disadvantage to be black or Jewish today.’

He added: ‘But because they once were .  .  . they are still not comfortable enough with the new situation they’re in.

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Edited March 11, 201214 yr by Boater

He's certainly right about modern Jews in America! Not so much about Jews in places like Ecuador. Blacks in America? There has been a lot of improvement but still a long way to go.

Easy for a white guy to say, I guess

He's certainly right about modern Jews in America! Not so much about Jews in places like Ecuador. Blacks in America? There has been a lot of improvement but still a long way to go.

I agree. Unfortunately there is a large percentage of blacks who are uneducated and who do not have the skills to get out of the permanant underclass that they are in. I believe that there would be little racism in The US anymore if this situation was to change for the better somehow, but no one can figure out how to change it.

If you tell people they're being discriminated against, most will believe you.

Not being either black or Jewish myself, that's as far as I'd like to go, except where the discrimination is blatant, as in South Africa under Apartheid.

Being an American Jew, I never experienced meaningful discrimination. Yes, I have heard my share of Jew hating jokes told by people who weren't aware there was a Jew listening. But as far as anything that matters for equality, such as housing, employment, marriage rights, being Jewish is irrelevant. I did at one point in my life experience POSITIVE discrimination towards me for being Jewish in an employment situation. In other words, I didn't deserve the job really. This was decades ago and I did feel it was wrong, but heck, I needed the job. Some of this positive and also irrational discrimination still happens. Some people insist on a Jewish lawyer, accountant, or doctor figuring they will be smarter. Yes, my parents generation DID experience real discrimination. My father felt the need to change his name to secure employment in his field and yes I believed he really needed to do that, and of course there used to be "Jew quotas" at ivy league colleges in the U.S. But not now.

Edited March 12, 201214 yr by Jingthing

If you tell people they're being discriminated against, most will believe you.

Not being either black or Jewish myself, that's as far as I'd like to go, except where the discrimination is blatant, as in South Africa under Apartheid.

Guess that never happens to farang here and its all in their heads too