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Jan. 14th, 2010 04:54 amYou have to wonder sometimes about people.
Tonight was my second public speaking class, one of the last requirements, the last barriers, I have between here and finally getting my degree. We were supposed to give a biographical speech. I've pasted mine in behind a cut for those of you who might be curious. It went fine. No, this is not what I'm here to talk about. What boggled my mind tonight - and I swear, every day is something new - was the speech given by one of my classmates in which she said, "Well, you know the stereotypes about Asians: We like math and figuring out puzzles and are really crafty and we all play, like, a million instruments? Well, it's true! Hahaha!" She laughed a lot harder than anyone else did at her joke. I don't know if anyone else laughed, to tell you the truth. I was a bit too shocked to notice.
I don't even know why this bothered me so much. There's definitely something to the idea of taking something that others see as a negative, as something to make fun of you for, and turning it on its ear. I think it's more that she thought she could use that piece of humor to somehow get the audience on her side. That would be one thing if the class was mainly Asian or even if for whatever reason we were all acquainted prior to last week. I don't know. Maybe I'm just feeling some kind of white guilt. I wouldn't feel comfortable going up there and saying, "And you know the stereotypes about Jews, right? We love being in charge and we're all doctors and lawyers and we're super crafty and out to get you!! It's totally true!"
Maybe it really is just an issue of etiquette/professionalism. Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass at four in the morning again. It seems the right time to do that sort of thing. Let me try and explain:
It's a lot easier to engage in self-deprecating ethnic or racial humor when your audience has the same background as you do. Otherwise it really is just a bit awkward, especially when you don't know who is listening. It's a lot different dealing with that than, say, watching a Richard Pryor stand up act from the 80s about life as a black man - or someone more modern; just choosing this for the way Pryor went about describing things - and laughing even if you're not black and don't exactly understand what the hell he's going on about. Pryor was an amazingly intelligent speaker and it was easy to understand where he was coming from despite - or maybe because - his extremely candid language. Someone in a beginning public speak class, on the other hand, has none of these tools worked out just yet.
But anyway, enough of this ruminating bullshit. It's off to sleep for me.
( one for the money/two for the show/three to get ready/now go kids go! )
Tonight was my second public speaking class, one of the last requirements, the last barriers, I have between here and finally getting my degree. We were supposed to give a biographical speech. I've pasted mine in behind a cut for those of you who might be curious. It went fine. No, this is not what I'm here to talk about. What boggled my mind tonight - and I swear, every day is something new - was the speech given by one of my classmates in which she said, "Well, you know the stereotypes about Asians: We like math and figuring out puzzles and are really crafty and we all play, like, a million instruments? Well, it's true! Hahaha!" She laughed a lot harder than anyone else did at her joke. I don't know if anyone else laughed, to tell you the truth. I was a bit too shocked to notice.
I don't even know why this bothered me so much. There's definitely something to the idea of taking something that others see as a negative, as something to make fun of you for, and turning it on its ear. I think it's more that she thought she could use that piece of humor to somehow get the audience on her side. That would be one thing if the class was mainly Asian or even if for whatever reason we were all acquainted prior to last week. I don't know. Maybe I'm just feeling some kind of white guilt. I wouldn't feel comfortable going up there and saying, "And you know the stereotypes about Jews, right? We love being in charge and we're all doctors and lawyers and we're super crafty and out to get you!! It's totally true!"
Maybe it really is just an issue of etiquette/professionalism. Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass at four in the morning again. It seems the right time to do that sort of thing. Let me try and explain:
It's a lot easier to engage in self-deprecating ethnic or racial humor when your audience has the same background as you do. Otherwise it really is just a bit awkward, especially when you don't know who is listening. It's a lot different dealing with that than, say, watching a Richard Pryor stand up act from the 80s about life as a black man - or someone more modern; just choosing this for the way Pryor went about describing things - and laughing even if you're not black and don't exactly understand what the hell he's going on about. Pryor was an amazingly intelligent speaker and it was easy to understand where he was coming from despite - or maybe because - his extremely candid language. Someone in a beginning public speak class, on the other hand, has none of these tools worked out just yet.
But anyway, enough of this ruminating bullshit. It's off to sleep for me.
( one for the money/two for the show/three to get ready/now go kids go! )
