Playing with Oppression

Latinx Students’ Use of Humor to Navigate Assumed Racism

Bibliographic Data

ID11325285
AuthorsJienian Zhang (0000-0002-5721-5606, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume86
Issue3
Pages256-274
Publication date2023-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Psychology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0190-2725 • E-ISSN: 1939-8999
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/01902725231177643
OpenAlexW4386001343
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited51

This article demonstrates how a group of Latinx students in a suburban high school use humor as an interactional strategy to negotiate and sometimes resist perceived racial meanings. Using ethnography, I find two distinct types of ambiguity central in such humor: (1) ambiguity in humor and (2) ambiguity in situational cues that prompt humor. The students interpret these often-ambiguous situational cues as relevant to racism and then use humor to play with assumed racism. Furthermore, they use humor in several distinct but not mutually exclusive forms: (1) preemptive testing, (2) constructing insider/outsider status, and (3) self-(re)defining. By integrating role theories in the analysis, I show the theoretical importance of analyzing both the social cues that prompt the humor and the humor itself. I suggest that such humorous interactions ultimately illuminate racial inequalities that usually remain undetected in interactions or in broader social contexts

Ambiguity · Epistemology · Ethnography · Insider · Linguistics · Oppression · Prejudice (legal term · Racism · Situational ethics · Sociology · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Gender Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Psychology · Social Psychology

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