Jokes that defame racial minorities tend to be demeaning and offensive, often featuring racist slurs that convey the idea that white people are superior.
Humor can serve many functions; it can strengthen ideologies while marginalizing groups, yet if we misunderstand the context, it’s easy to miss its intended message.
1. “It’s a white man’s world”
It can be terrifyingly worrying when new, divisive ideas emerge from dark corners. With the furor over Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Borat still simmering, one such idea has surfaced: racism or Islamophobia can be acceptable so long as it’s humorous. Claiming that jokes promoting racial prejudice are only “funny” or not racist is one way of justifying their inclusion within the social fabric while simultaneously marginalizing People of Colour from having their voices heard by society.
Racist humor primarily dehumanizes a victimized group and reinforces a dominant power dynamic. A joke referring to Poles as morons would not be funny for someone whose grandparents came from Poland; such marks serve as insults. Jokes that depict Jews, Italians, or Greeks in derogatory terms do not strike any laughter either.
This reading list from JSTOR’s free collection of peer-reviewed scholarship on disparaging humor illustrates its critical social roles. By dehumanizing victims of racist slurs and making violence easier to accept against them, these jokes make accepting violence against them more manageable. Scholars examine its function across different historical and geographical contexts while investigating how seemingly innocent everyday practices, like sharing a joke, can reinforce and legitimize violence against targeted groups.
No surprise then that alternative comedians pushed these old-style racist jokes out of mainstream comedy; Lenny Henry, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmonson, Ben Elton, Dawn French, and Stephen Fry made themselves well-known by declaring it wasn’t funny to dehumanize others based on skin color. This extremely bold move helped transform comedy from its old position as elite-based art to mainstream popular culture.
2. “White people can’t joke”
Jokes that mock racial minorities serve as an ego boost for dominant groups by suggesting that minorities are different yet inferior, such as portraying black people as dim-witted thieves (an insult against whites who could never become such criminals).
Racist jokes can be offensive and inciting. Furthermore, they bolster an intolerant and xenophobic group by justifying its members to justify their actions, even when these have real-world repercussions. That is why we must be wary about which kinds of jokes we tell in a society that fetishizes race.
There is a growing body of philosophical literature on racist humor, mainly within the realm of disparagement humor – that broad category of jokes that make fun of social groups such as gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, or disability – mainly through joke sharing. Articles can be found on JSTOR that examine how even seemingly benign acts, such as sharing jokes, can serve to dehumanize those being targeted with them.
Jonathan Perez, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of La Verne, investigates how jokes can bring out the worst in people and be used by media figures, politicians, law enforcement officers, and other whites to reinforce their power and inequality. Furthermore, he examines their impact on individuals and communities beyond mere emotional harm; using examples from Sacha Baron Cohen’s popular TV series Borat and other comedians’ works, Perez shows that racism serves as “oxygen” for disapproving views toward people of color.
3. “Black people can’t joke”
At first glance, when white people laugh at jokes about black people being stupid or lazy or having too much melanin, this could be seen as racial humor. These jokes suggest that blacks are not fully human, and it is, therefore, acceptable to degrade them through spirit. Racial humor was first made famous by Douglas Turner Ward’s 1965 play Day of Absence, performed exclusively by black actors in whiteface – its success stemmed from its reverse-minstrel show theme, which allowed it to criticize racial injustice by drawing attention to it.
Racial humor of this sort poses several problems. First, it reinforces the idea that white people are at the top of society – leading to other forms of discrimination against them.
White users who engage in racist humor online often justify it with claims that it’s harmless fun and should not be considered harmful to society or appropriate. Unfortunately, however, such claims don’t stand up under closer inspection.
The fact is, racially offensive jokes can have severe repercussions, which is why their use by white people should matter. Racially offensive humor often brings out our worst selves instead of our best selves, reinforcing stereotypes and creating prejudices along the way. To better identify and respond to racist jokes more efficiently, reading books on racism and the philosophy of tricks like Anderson’s (2015 or Cohen’s 1999 provides valuable insights.
4. “It’s a black man’s world”
Comedy can often defuse tension by providing an outlet for feelings or experiences too painful or uncomfortable to be discussed directly. Yet, its potential can also be exploited to convey pernicious untruths that would otherwise be unacceptable to state in any other context. Barr and Imus were notorious for employing humor to portray black people as lazy, ugly sex-obsessed criminals or whites as inept dolts while using hyper-contrived and unrealistic characterizations as means to defend racist depictions made using humor to depict white audiences, which overwhelmingly comprised mainly of white audiences that could see through them.
Arguments lacking any logical foundation have no place here. Intentionally offensive jokes don’t just provoke those who hear them to feel offended – they also reinforce boundaries of inclusion and exclusion, promote ideologies, and harm marginalized groups. As the author of this article points out in an earlier post, being part of an offending group might be less harmful to you than not belonging to it at all.
As such, the effect of racism and humor is far more complicated than simply considering whether someone finds a joke funny. To quote Mark Twain: “You cannot reduce social injustice to an easily understood phrase or witticism; rather, it must consider structures which create such injustice while considering how jokes might help sustain them – an understanding that allows one to recognize racism is not simply measured by how one feels about a particular joke, but by what that joke reveals about our world and its power over us.”
5. “It’s a white man’s world”
Jokes can be great ways to lighten a conversation and be a powerful weapon against untruths, such as harmful stereotypes about race and gender. Racist jokes typically contain offensive or derogatory remarks aimed at particular races; when used by comedians like Colbert Barr or Imus, they can cause great harm and incite hateful sentiments; when used by comedians such as Lenny Henry, Rik Mayall, or Rowan Atkinson, they can challenge and deconstruct racist stereotypes!
Scholars have conducted extensive studies on how people use humor to express their prejudices and have developed theories regarding ethical considerations raised by such practices. Though philosophical literature on racist jokes may be small, some does exist; most research on the topic covers race jokes specifically, though scholars have also explored other categories such as sexual orientation, nationality, or profession.
As one example, one of the most prevalent jokes aimed at black people compares them to monkeys or apes, tapping into traditional stereotypes about their food habits, work ethic, and sexual proclivities. Meanwhile, jokes directed towards white people often focus on their economic disadvantages, calling them hippies or rednecks or characterizing them as immoral and dishonest.
While degrading certain groups through humor is undoubtedly problematic, racial disparaging humor remains integral to society. The articles featured here on JSTOR consider its social functions and potential risks such comedy poses. They focus mainly on North American and European mobilizations of discriminatory humor as starting points for debate on this issue.
