Tuesday, June 15, 2010 |
BY J KARL MILLER
David Rosman's recent column "Otis the steer-cow has some identity issues," as well as Sarah Palmer's response, says volumes about what we have become as a nation in our acceptance or tolerance of that which we may safely find humorous.
Although Ms. Palmer's opinion is extremely well-written and establishes her point clearly, I see an example of a continuing decline in our ability to laugh together and at ourselves.
Among the aggregate fruits of multiculturalism, political correctness and diversity is the overstimulation of sensitivity and a tendency to view oneself or associations as victims. The resultant emotional stress or distress is often seen as overreaction to perceived abuse of religious beliefs, sexual orientation, race, age, disability, ethnicity or country of origin.
Only utter fools or frauds would claim these abuses do not exist in society; nevertheless, as one who has lived, worked and studied among extremely diverse cultures for a period of 75 years, I have observed our collective sense of humor become a casualty to a heightened intolerance. Any comment or action — however innocent or unintended — that can be interpreted as deprecating, insulting or tactless will be a veritable "Murphy's law" of insensitivity.
A major contributing factor to this heightened self-awareness and hypersensitivity is the unintended consequence of classifying certain offenses against persons perceived as belonging to the social groups described above as "hate or bias-motivated crimes."
Although the underlying intent of protecting such groups (in addition to federal prosecution, 45 states and the District of Columbia have also criminalized various types of hate crimes) is praiseworthy, in practice it has proven in many ways to be impractical or unsuitable.
Regrettably, these are not isolated instances. On our university campus, there were calls to treat the February incident in which two students spread cotton balls on Black Culture Center's lawn as a hate crime. Cooler heads prevailed but not before it was blown out of proportion.
Getting back to the theme of tolerance through humor, the seeming lack of ability to recognize and enjoy amusement across racial, social and cultural lines is a disturbing trend.
As recently as the 1970s and early '80s, we were treated to such television series as "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons" and "Soap." Through the medium of innuendo and satire, these comedies treated the subjects of race, gender and sexual orientation with humor while labeling bigotry, prejudice and discrimination as the practice of fools.
Earlier examples of political correctness affecting ethnic humor are seen in the reaction to Mark Twain's novel "Huckleberry Finn" and the popular radio show "Thee Amos 'n Andy Show." Today, the former is maligned as racist and the latter as a racial stereotype.
In reality, the runaway slave in Twain's satire of that era was intelligent and the hero. On the air from the 1920s to the early 1950s, "The Amos 'n Andy Show" was popular with both white and black audiences as it was authentic and included ethnic humor.
Somehow we have lost the ability to react in a positive manner, and instead we have retreated into our own comfortable social, racial, cultural, religious and other enclaves. Those who are in the majority must attempt to understand and be tolerant of those who are different.
Finally, those who are of lesser numbers and influence differing in ethnicity, race or sexual orientation must realize that there will forever be ignorance and bigotry on both sides of the coin. And though the bias always appears intensified toward minority groups, the vast majority of today's society is a fair-minded and increasingly tolerant. Laughter is still the best medicine.
It could be worse — you could be an old, Christian white guy and be blamed for the multitude of sins and disasters affecting the world today.
J. Karl Miller retired as a colonel in the Marine Corps. He is a Columbia resident and can be reached via e-mail at JKarlUSMC@aol.com.
Welcome to the New Reality:
Navigating the Quagmire of Humor and Political Correctness
http://www.granirer.com/ART-0001.htm
by David Granirer MA, North America's Psychotherapist/Stand-up Comic
Confused is how many people feel when it comes to the whole idea of political correctness and workplace humor. Some resent having to watch every word that comes out of their mouth, while others now feel safer knowing their vulnerabilities won’t be targeted for ridicule. The bottom line is that political correctness has brought a whole new perspective to what is and isn’t acceptable humor. And that’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, it’s just a reality to which people have to adjust.
In order to bring some clarity to this complicated and emotionally charged topic, it helps to put aside the issue of what is or isn’t politically correct, and look at the functionality of our humor. In other words, what healthy workplace humor is supposed to accomplish, and whether or not the way we use our humor accomplishes those purposes.
Healthy Workplace Humor
My definition of healthy workplace humor is "acts involving some sort of surprise and/or exaggeration that make people feel good." Certainly this can take the form of joke telling, but it can also take many others. Leaving a cookie on a coworker’s desk, giving an unexpected compliment, and sending an encouraging e-mail are all acts that involve some form of surprise ("Hey, I wasn’t expecting that!") and leave people feeling good.
By "making people feel good," I mean that healthy workplace humor accomplishes four main goals: It releases tension, creates a sense of acceptance, conveys a sense of unity or support, and restores a healthy perspective on a given situation. So if I’m having a bad day and someone does something humorous, chances are I’ll feel less tense, more accepting of myself and my situation, less alone, and more able to see the whole picture, whereas before I may have been fixated on just one small part of it.
These four goals of healthy humor are non-controversial - something everyone supports, regardless of their views on political correctness. We all want to work in an environment that is as tension-free as possible, where we feel accepted, supported, and able to develop a healthy perspective on the difficulties we inevitably face as working people.
So a good criteria for the functionality of our humor is to ask ourselves if how we use it promotes or undermines these four goals. And what we find is that politically incorrect humor undermines them all. Take an actual case in point. A female employee receives a surprise gift from some male coworkers. So far so good, but unfortunately, the gift contains lingerie and sexual devices. Of course workplace tension immediately shoots up, acceptance is destroyed, office unity is shattered, and now everyone is hyper-focused on the issue of sexual harassment, losing any sense of perspective they may have had. So this kind of humor is not only politically incorrect, it also creates a negative atmosphere, something no one wants in his or her workplace.
This act, which perhaps to give the benefit of the doubt may have begun as a seemingly harmless practical joke, broke some very important rules of healthy workplace humor, resulting in a lawsuit and several people losing their jobs.
Safe Humor Rules
Practicing the following four rules ensures that humor will achieve the aforementioned four goals:
Rule#1: Don’t make jokes about coworkers’ sexuality. People are very uncomfortable with sexual innuendo in a workplace. Your friends may find it hilarious, but unless all the people you work with are close friends you’ve known for years, leave it at home, because someone is bound to be offended.
Rule #2: Don’t make jokes about people’s appearance. This is another emotionally charged area, and whether you agree or not, just don’t go there.
Rule#3: Avoid jokes about religion, ethnic background, nationality, sexual orientation etc. unless it’s to joke about your own.
Rule#4: Avoid jokes about bodily functions. The only exception is if you work in a healthcare or other setting where these jokes are necessary to maintain your sanity.
Surprise, surprise, these rules also conform to what would be considered the guidelines for politically correct humor, which essentially are not to make jokes about people’s sexuality, minorities, God, and, grossness. But we’re not talking politically correct, we’re talking about achieving the four goals of healthy humor, which everyone can support.
So what’s left to joke about? Here are three safe areas:
#1: Yourself, your flaws, neuroses and inadequacies. When you make these jokes, people are brought closer to you because they can relate. And so far, no one’s ever been sued for joking about him or herself.
#2: The situation you all face, i.e., the upcoming merger, the new reorganization, the difficult customers you deal with, etc.
#3: Personal characteristics in areas of low ego-involvement. Though most people are extremely sensitive about appearance, they’re much less invested in other aspects of themselves. For example, I don’t mind if someone makes jokes about my bad handwriting or the fact that I look tired because I had to get up at four in the morning to change a diaper. Poking fun at Peter because he’d rather ski than do paperwork, or Mary because she has a distinctive laugh is relatively safe to do, and communicates affection rather than disdain.
No question, the reality has changed. What used to be okay in terms of humor isn’t any more. Before it was easy to get a laugh by putting someone down. But as we’ve seen, all this creates is negativity. However, this new reality forces us to be more clever, creative, and considerate in the way we use humor. And I think that most people would like to think of themselves as clever, creative, and considerate, regardless of their views on political correctness.
