PSA to the TSA

{Negative Humor}

     Ethnocentrism: The systematic preference for characteristics of one’s own culture.

     I think ethnocentrism is a huge factor in negative humor.  Unconsciously, I feel like we all have this preconceived idea that we respect each others’ differences and cultures, treat everybody with equal kindness, and live up to the golden rule.  Yet, this ignorance is often where negative humor begins.  I believe we are too content in our own culture that we do not know how to deal with others who are dissimilar to us, so we use humor to combat our uneasiness. 

     I am not going to lie.  My uncle looks like he is from the Middle East, even though he was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.  Of Italian descent, he has tan skin, dark, curly hair, and strong features.  Consequently, the airport security team never fails to assume he is from the Middle East as well, which makes his traveling a bit more problematic. 

     Every time my uncle gets to the airport security checkpoint, he immediately gets patted down and searched for any illegal belongings.  He often needs to be put in a separate room, so the security officials can conduct “further investigation.” 

     Although my uncle does not enjoy this tedious process, my family and I have a running joke that he has to be searched every time he goes to the airport. 

     However, we are so caught up in our own lives and cultures that we do not think about others who are different than us, the out-group.  For many innocent international individuals, intense airport security is a common reality.

     The Superiority Theory is also at work in negative humor.  In a way, through joking about my uncle, my family and I make ourselves feel superior to him because we, personally, do not have to get detained when going through airport security.

     A quote from one of my favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, sums up our own ignorance perfectly: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”  

     For a person of ethnic descent, getting examined at the airport is more than simply 10 minutes less to get to their gate.  For a person of ethnic descent, it is about getting judged for their looks and their ethnicity.  It is about stereotyping an entire culture and forcing people into an overarching typecast.  Yet, if we learn to be more open-minded and see situations from other peoples’ points of views, we would be far better prepared to avoid ethnocentrism altogether.

     Negative humor surrounds us each and every day.  Yet, we are constantly unaware of it because we are too busy laughing at those who are different than us to make our own circumstances seem better.  However, negative humor is for lack of a better word, negative.  Negative humor is destructive, damaging, and most significantly, separating.  It puts people against each other, rather than for each other.  It makes some feel powerful and mighty and others feel small and meek.

     If our society is based upon equality and democracy, why is this kind of deprecation so common?  Why do we feel superior to our fellow man?  The answer is that we are too content with our own culture and our own beliefs.

     Once we step outside of our confining in-groups, we will hopefully, be able to tap into the precise ideals our country was once founded upon.