Personal Development

» Louise88 - Jokes told on one's in-group

I think people are attracted by hearing a member of another group (especially a persecuted group) tell jokes on that group. It's like a free ticket to laugh at something that might be in poor taste, without having to decide whether or not it's my job to speak up for the oppressed. I can say to myself "I'm such a sensitive person! [Black / male / homosexual / First Nations / handicapped ] people trust me enough to tell the jokes that they tell each other, and they don't mind if I laugh!"

But I also think that telling the jokes to 'outsiders' can send the wrong message about the context in which the jokes are acceptable. There's are a couple of jokes about my own religious minority that I've heard from other members of that group (my father got them from my uncle, for example) which I enjoyed passing on to people who weren't part of that religion but who knew enough about it to think the jokes were funny. Yet later I found myself angered to hear those people telling the jokes to others. In that context, it felt as if they were all ridiculing at my family and my choices, without acknowledging that someone in the room identified with that group.

-- posted by Louise88