Continuing on the topic of antiziganism...

Have you heard of Borat Sadiiyev?

If you're aware of the racial prejudice known as antiziganism, or if you have kids from Kaz, or Bulgaria or other Eastern European countries you probably have. Or, if you watch a lot of TV.

Here's how wiki introduces him:

Borat Sagdiyev ... ("born" July 30, 1979) is a fictional Kazakh journalist invented and portrayed by the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Borat evolved from previous characters that Baron Cohen had developed; firstly an unnamed Moldovan TV reporter (for LWT/Granada TV and the BBC's Comedy Nation) and later an Albanian TV reporter called Kristo (for the Paramount Comedy Channel, actually based on Cohen's personal friend James Kristenson).

Borat appeared regularly on Da Ali G Show, for Channel 4, with sketches featuring him often relying on outrageous behaviour and actions, and the reactions of uninformed individuals around him. In some cases, Borat's guests embrace his anti-Semitism and misogyny by agreeing with him, while other guests attempt to explain Western values to him.

The government in Kaz is not amused and has reserved, "the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."

Not alone, a German group representing Roma interests said it had filed a suit to try to stop ... Sacha Baron Cohen showing his latest film in Germany.

"We are accusing him of defamation and inciting violence against Sinti and Roma (gypsies)," Marko Knudsen - head of the European Center of Antiziganism Research,

It doesn't seem to have made an impression.

Baron Cohen has since posted a video on the "Official Borat Homesite" where Borat responds to Ashykbayev in character. In the video, Borat states, in part, "In response to Mr. Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my Government's decision to sue this Jew. Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old. Please, captain of industry; I invite you to come to Kazakhstan where we have incredible natural resources, hardworking labour, and some of the cleanest prostitutes in whole of central Asia. Goodbye! "

Since then, the government hired two Western public relations firms to counter Borat's claims, and ran a four-page advertisement in The New York Times. The ad carried testimonials about the nation’s democracy, education system and the power and influence enjoyed by women.

He now has a movie about to be released: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and ...

On September 29, 2006, Cohen appeared in character as Borat at the White House gates to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his forthcoming film, along with "O.J. Simpsons", "Mel Gibsons" and other "American dignitaries." Not surprisingly, Secret Service agents would not admit him to the grounds. The apparent publicity stunt was likely timed to coincide with an official visit by President Nazarbayev the following day.

President Nazarbayev's daughter, by the way, says, "We should not be afraid of humour and we shouldn't try to control everything, I think."

So, is humor a weapon against bigotry?

In an article in Britain's Guardian, Kazakhstan's ambassador to the UK Erian Idrissov seems to think not:

There is a further reason why Baron Cohen causes injury and offence. Under Stalin's forced collectivisation in the 1920s, about half the ethnic Kazakh population were deported or starved to death. In the early 1940s, entire populations of "anti-Soviet" peoples - including Tartars, Chechens, Ingush, Volga Germans and Koreans - were dumped in the Kazakh steppes. The one positive outcome of the forced population movements is that Kazakhstan has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the world. Just over half of the 15 million population are ethnic Kazakhs, about 30% Russian, and the rest from a dozen different nationalities. There are more than 100 different ethnic and religious groups.

Given what we have been through as a nation, racial and ethnic tolerance is regarded as a practical necessity and part of our contemporary identity. It is no exaggeration to say that the stability of the modern Kazakh state depends on a shared recognition that we must do nothing to disturb the harmony among this complex mosaic of peoples. Consequently, Kazakhs generally do not care for racial slurs or think much of those who indulge in them.

The LA Times sees it differently.

This, I think, is where the genius and horror of Borat's explorations really lie: The joke is not on the U.S. or Kazakhstan or even the fake Kazakhstan of Cohen's imagination. The joke is on petrified, inward-looking nationalism of all stripes. What's funny is a jingoism so blinkered it can't see the joke in a fake Kazakh singing the fake Kazakh national anthem to the tune of the American one. (Or the irony, for that matter, in the malaprop: "I support your war of terror!")

Humor or harm? Wit or wound?

Thoughts?