Your humor is racist, misogynistic, classist, regressive overall

*Wrote this back in December, right before I graduated. It’s been collecting dust as a draft — decided to publish it because it’s still relevant, unfortunately…

I need an outlet to express what the hell just happened in my philosophy of humor class at UCLA. Please bear with me. I checked out of that class early in the quarter, not because I’m some slacking, unappreciative lame. But because of the Eurocentric, misogynistic, racist, and unstructured nature of the course (and somewhat the professor and all the way the other guy besides me in the class). I will admit, I hate that I checked out — that I chose to handle the course that way. But today’s lecture brought me right back in.

Today’s topic of discussion: why is the Sharkeisha video so damn funny? Don’t watch it. I don’t think it’s funny. It’s rooted in violence against women, especially young black women. It promotes stereotype and all this regressive b.s. that I’m at UCLA to deconstruct and ultimately end. But if you want to see a clip of some girl named Sharkeisha sucker punching (and nearly killing another young black girl), then go for it. It was popular early last year among some folks who need to really decolonize their minds for the sake of youth and women of color.