One of my roommates this year has a very interesting quality. By this I mean that she is sometimes a little bit racist. I love her, but it pains me to hear her make ignorant comments about people of different races. It demeans the years of work and progress that our country has taken to even get to this point.
On a Sunday, my roommates and I were walking to the BLUU, when she saw a Mexican man walking down the street with a thick moustache. She made an innocent joke saying "he looks like my gardener". Normally, I would have just laughed and dismiss this joke, but because of Lit&Civ II, I had a heightened awareness to negative humor.
To me, the comment was so uncalled for. She had no reason to assume anything about this man's life and it was kind of the final straw for me. This negative humor provided me with a gateway to talk to my roommate about how I felt about her attitude's towards people of other ethnicities. No one deserves to be treated as anything less than a human.
I hope that my roommate is able to learn, as I have, the effects of negative humor on our lives and the way we perceive those around us. I have noticed that by trying to cut down on negative humor I am much more accepting to those around me. By not looking for their flaws as a means to make a joke, I am able to celebrate people's differences instead of bringing them down for them. I sincerely hope this is a lesson that my roommate will learn soon.
I totally agree with your thoughts on her attitude toward using racism as humor. Obviously, I do not know your roommate so I cannot make any judgements on her character. However, I will touch on your attitude toward negative humor. I too have had a heightened awareness to negative humor because of this course and I believe that its not a bad thing, our new found awareness I mean. I am now constantly noticing things that my friends and I, as well, would normally say or laugh about that aren't positive. I think its important that we, as a society, strive to focus on positive humor rather than negative humor.
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