I was just looking at a Twitter tag #blackpeoplemovies. The title of this post comes from one of the entries. Some of the posts were funny as hell. A few were offensive, but the funniest, roll-on-the-floor-and-cry posts were from black people. (Black?) (African American?) I know this because they had their pictures next to their Twitter profiles.
I hesitated to send it around to some of my friends, though. Will they think I'm a racist? I hope I'm not. Will they be offended or will they share in the joke?
Its not just the racial issue, but the gender and sexual orientation issue as well. I think back to the early '90's gay activists. They took all the derogatory names and comments and OWNED them. They defused the negative epiteths and threw them right back in society's face, chanting, "We're here, we're queer, get used to it." It took a while, but it kinda looks like we did, at least to me.
I never met a Queen worth her size 13 slippers who wasn't wickedly witty. Humor as a defense mechanism. And sometimes as an offensive as well! Laugh at yourself and the world laughs with you. Take yourself too seriously and isolation and alienation are the inevitable results.
So I wonder, as a woman, am I missing out on part of the joke, due to misguided PC? If I'm the only woman in the company of men, are we having an entirely different conversation than we would if I weren't present? Because I think THAT'S the real danger, not letting some locker room comment slip.
So, if I've offended anyone, I apologize. That's definitely not my intent. I know I'm out on a limb here and hopefully it won't get cut off behind me.
I'm just saying that it takes a strong secure person to laugh at herself. Can we just admit that we all do some VERY funny shit? Can we take race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. out of the mix and just enjoy the joke? Only then will we have the level of inclusion necessary for real equality to exist.
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