http://www.upworthy.com/sometimes-it-takes-a-white-dude-to-get-real-about-racism?g=2&c=upw1
We've discussed White Privilege a lot in this class and discussed the pros and cons of humor in addressing or perpetuating racism. Rather than leaning on minority stereotypes, Louis C. K. pulls humor from his honest perspective of being white. So this is the dominant culture using comedy to address the real benefits of being within that culture. In both of these clips Louis C.K. invokes Peggy McIntosh's Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack as well as the the issues of historical context as presented by Martin and Nakayama. You might even say that his acts are examples of the critical perspective employed through a popular medium. Considering the long standing criticisms of the Ivory tower, I wonder if Stand-up comedy has real educational potential given it's accessibility and perceived levity. I consider myself quite comfortable with the concepts of white privilege so I'm curious how an audience who was initially introduced to the concept with a clip like this would respond. Would they be at ease discussing it? Would white students feel okay admitting it because they've got someone laughing about it? Are minority students offended by this and do some consider it irreverent? It seems many are critical of minorities using minority humor to garner laughs which may also make the, appealing to dominant culture. So, is diploma ant culture able to use humor with less criticism? An African-American friend of mine working on her PhD in Communication posted this Jay Leno Video to Facebook. That led me to Upworthy, a site that then emailed me the second stand-up clip. So, a minority grad student in our field and a mainstream progressive website are sharing these. If these are indicators of acceptability it could be argued that the ability to use humor to critique culture is also a privilege enjoyed by the dominant cultural group. What do you think?.
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