When we first started talking about stereotypes I thought about middle school, and how almost all of us were all awful human beings during that time, that was the time that stands out to me where stereotypes and racism became something that we use and see constantly in daily life whether we mean to or not. Stereotypes at that time became ingrained in our behavior and language and even humor which I think is why stereotypes are so easily perpetuated and spread, because now I hear all this bad things which I know now are bad, but in middle school being awful I probably would have laughed as awful as that is.
When we were all in the large group we kinda learned about other injustices others face and how we deal with it and Keisha said something about how she jokes about the stereotypes put on her with her friends and actually uses them herself as like a joke to herself. She laughed off stereotypes, and I learned that a lot of people take them as jokes and things that aren’t really serious, which sometimes they don’t pose any real danger but sometimes they do.
Now I’m thinking about how stereotypes are really ingrained in our senses of humor. Many of the stereotypes that we hear every day are in the form of a joke or something intended to make someone laugh. Even in the media, this is seen as movies and comedians joke about stereotypes all of the time. Racism is often joked about in comedy. But is it really a laughing matter? The fact that we take stereotypes so lightly I think is slightly dangerous, because we joke about it but stereotypes are still things that are very ingrained in our minds. And even jokes can have an influence on the person being stereotyped. A lot of times when the squad is roasting you, u laugh it off but sometimes there’s something that really hits a sensitive spot and legitimately hurts. Stereotypes may seem funny when we use them in a no serious way such as this, but it can still make someone feel less valued or insecure about themselves. The exposure of this is also unconsciously damaging to an individual who is constantly exposed to these kinds of jokes, they start to joke about it as well more often and then the stereotype is spread, and unconsciously they are putting down themselves with this stereotype. It’s just weird when u think about it that we rely so much on racism and stereotypes in humor whether it’s personal or in the media. Humor can actually be very damaging in this way.
