Humor is a crucial part of social interactions. It has the potential to relieve stress and enable an individual to get rid of anxiety. Fun forms part of our social relationships with relatives and friends. Humor can, however, be detrimental when prejudiced jokes and comments are involved (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, & Sommers, 2019). Racist or sexist jokes, for instance, can be hurtful to a particular individual in the audience.
During my internship one year ago, one of the interns told a hurtful, racist joke that offended me. It was during round the table introductions of the staff members and the interns. The Human Resource Manager requested each of us to tell a joke as part of introductions. It was a humorous activity that helped to ease the tension between the interns and the other staff. The fun was, however, cut short when one of the interns told a racist joke about poverty and malnutrition. Unfortunately, a few interns and staff belonged to the culture that the intern had alluded to in the joke. An uncomfortable silence ensued for a few minutes with suspicious glances dominating the round table. The HRM intervened and encouraged others to do their introductions. We all knew that the joke was hurtful to some of the present members, yet none of us confronted the intern. I felt offended by the joke, but I also chose to remain silent.
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Many individuals often find themselves in a similar situation. The decision to remain silent and not confront the culprit can be explained in the lens of social psychology. First, nobody would like to be labeled as hypersensitive and unable to "take jokes". In most situations, the defence mechanism of the perpetrators when confronted would be saying that it was just a joke (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, & Sommers, 2019). They would likely tell their confronters that they are overreacting. The retaliation of the culprit would present an unpleasant social impact which most individuals would rather avoid. Also, according to the superiority theory of humor, racist comments or jokes may be considered to be harmless by some individuals (Jang, & Cordero-Pedrosa, 2016). People may find humor in the racist characters and not racism. For instance, in TV shows and comedies, the audience laughs at the characters and not the racist comments.
References
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Akert, R. M., & Sommers, S. R. (Eds.). (2019). Social psychology (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Jang, I. J., & Cordero-Pedrosa, C. (2016). To Laugh or Not to Laugh at Racist Jokes. Peace Review, 28(4), 474-481.
