In Me Funny, one of the contributors comments on the differences between three types of jokes having to do with Native peoples: not jokes, in jokes, and our jokes. Not jokes are jokes told about Natives by non-Natives. They are not funny because they are generally being told by someone of the dominant culture, therefore they are not jokes at all. In jokes are jokes that both Natives and non-Natives can relate to. Our jokes are jokes told by Natives for Natives. White people are usually not in on these types of jokes.
When we were watching Native comedians in class the other day, one routine that caught my attention was Charlie Hill's deprecation (if you could call it that) of the dominant culture. It could be argued that Hill's jokes were 'our jokes,' making fun of white people and the dominant society. Now, I take no issue with this deprecation because being white is awesome. I don't mean that it's better than any other race, but I mean, in this world, it's pretty awesome to be white. We get ridiculous privilege over anyone with skin darker than ours, and I think it's important for every white person to recognize this privilege. Being ignorant about white privilege only perpetuates racism because it gives no reason to combat racism. If we believe that white people have no privilege, then why should we be concerned about racism? If white privilege is nonexistent, then racism is dead, and, of course, this could not be further from the truth.
So what does white privilege mean for 'our jokes'? Does it mean that Native people have a right to make our jokes in the presence of white people? I would argue that of course they do. Some people may harp on about "reverse racism" (which doesn't really exist, mind you. That's a sociological fact), but ultimately white people are the privileged group. In my opinion, we should really not be offended by anything. Because, at the end of the day, we're still not going to be targeted disproportionately by police. We're still going to have no trouble hailing a taxi. No one is going to attribute our individual features to our race. Yes, I do think these jokes are allowed to make us somewhat uncomfortable, but no one should be calling them offensive to white people. We have always been the winners, the writers of history--I think we could stand to be knocked down a few pegs.
For one thing, "reverse racism" is just a stupid term. It's not "reversed" in any way, it's still just plain old racism. I never understood why people from the minority cultures needed a special term for racism all to themselves. But I digress.
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily agree that "we should really not be offended by anything." Everyone is entitled to what hurts their feelings. I personally can be offended by many jokes my friends make at my expense. But that's just it, they're making jokes about me specifically. So in that way, I do agree that our dominant white culture shouldn't really feel offended about jokes made at our dominant white culture's expense. I never once felt offended by what the Native comedians said, probably because they were made at people who weren't me personally. They were made at the expense of our forefathers or people who treat minorities poorly (still not me).