1、1In Black and White:A Content Analysis of Racial Humor in the Chappelle ShowBy Jasmin AbbatielloABSTRACTThis paper is a content analysis of racial and ethnic stereotypes portrayed through comedy, in particular The Dave Chappelle Show. Using the theory of social construction, I argue that individuals
2、 create meaning for categories such as race and ethnicity. Chappelle uses comedic skits to undermine racist stereotypes that exist in American society. Do you ever stop and wonder who gives the world meaning? Who creates how, why, and what we think about the world? Sociologist using a social constru
3、ction framework argue that individuals create meaning, including categories such as race and ethnicity. The socially constructed nature of race and ethnicity can be analyzed in media products like comedy. In The Chappelle Show, Chappelle presents racial and ethnic stereotypes that exist in society,
4、yet he also critically comments on the very nature of social constructs of race. This paper is a content analysis of racial and ethnic stereotypes portrayed through comedy, in particular The Chappelle Show.LITERATURE REVIEWRacial and ethnic stereotypes have been portrayed in books, television shows,
5、 and other forms of the media, in particular comedy. Although it can be a controversial topic, some scholars argue that ethnic humor is used as a form of survival. Boskin and Dorinson (1985) argue that ethnic humor makes those using it feel more comfortable with themselves and with those who are not
6、 like them. Horton (1993) argues that by portraying the cultural style of African Americans, people to feel more comfortable with themselves and their thoughts of people who are different then them. Both authors agree that comical stereotypes are used as a form of survival, and that over time people
7、 have adapted different racial and ethnic stereotypes.Ethnic humor is used in everyday life. Boskin and Dorinson (1985) argue that ethnic humor can be used by those who are at the top of the social class as well as the bottom to make differences less apparent and to create a sort of comfort zone. Ho
8、wever ethnic humor can also be used to degrade those people who are not the same, or who are not in the same social structure. Middleton (1959) found that reactions to this type of humor varied among racial groups. “Negroes did react more favorably than whites to anti-white jokes, but the Negroes ap
9、parently found the anti-negro jokes just as funny as the whites” (Middleton 1959:178). Burma (1946) claims that jokes told by minorities about whites are sometimes considered to be “race conscious” jokes created by minorities to put down a group thought to be superior to make the minority group feel
10、 better about themselves. Thus, jokes make it easier for minorities to survive.Lowe (1986:442) claims that ethnic humor has a “connection with mythical concepts of aggression, struggle, and our national passion play and ritual, Americanization.” Humans attached a constructed meaning to the physical
11、world, in particular, America. Lowe looks at how stereotypical views are in the radio show Amos and Andy. Although these comedians in white face may have known little or nothing about the cultural style of African Americans, this particular show was based on the perception of blacks through the eyes
12、 of whites. African Americans were portrayed in 2comedy using the stereotypes of blacks found in society; a society that was constructed to think that African Americans were ignorant. Horton (1993) also writes about the famous television and radio series Amos and Andy. He claims that white comedians
13、 knew nothing about the cultural style of Africa Americans, so they portrayed blacks as ignorant and took comfort in confirming their negative thoughts of the African American culture. This made the whites feel more comfortable with their perception of their own and other cultures. Such media portra
14、yals constructed an image of black culture that others assumed to be true. Horton (1993) argues that individuals use these comedian portrayals as a coping mechanism or as a form of survival; white people watched Amos and Andy to make themselves feel better about the stereotypes that they held, while
15、 black people laughed at how the characters withhold anger. Similarly, Wright (1995) claimed that humor has been used as a coping mechanism describing the social realities in society. Through humor, African Americans find it easier to tell history of their past dealing with their own culture and als
16、o white culture, thus relieving some tension there might be dealing with this serious topic. Gordons (1998:264) theorizes that by approaching serious racial topics through humor, “White society is forced to artfully confront the reality that the lives of blacks and whites are inextricably but unequa
17、lly bound together.” This humor reflects a consciousness of multiple audiences, constructed along and divided by racial lines. Gordon uses evidence gathered through a content analysis to show that racial stereotypes are more tolerable through humor and also that stereotypes are constructed through t
18、he actions of people. In The New Acceptability of Ridiculing Black People (1997) ethnic stereotypes in humor is examined as a social construct. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (1997) argues that over time people have adapted and accepted the social constructions of different racial and eth
19、nic stereotypes. When whites were displaying stereotypical images of African Americans, it was considered unjust. Today, racially stereotyped messages are considered more acceptable if they come from a member of the same minority culture. For example, African Americans today laugh at the stereotypic
20、al images of blacks when performed by black comedians.All of these authors agree that the racial and ethnic stereotype formed in humor is constructed socially. These images would not exist unless they were created by someone. These thoughts and perceptions of people had to be constructed before such
21、 stereotypes would become realities of that particular culture. My own study is based upon these previous findings and will examine racial humor as performed by a black comedian, Dave Chappelle.THEORYAccording to Macionis (1998: 479), race is defined as “a category composed of men and women who shar
22、e biologically transmitted traits that member of a society deem socially significant.“ Ethnicity refers to a shared cultural heritage. Today, most sociologists recognize that both of these categories are socially constructed, meaning that people categorize and create labels for types of things or pe
23、ople. Furthermore, social constructs influences human behaviors. Loseke (1999:15-18), states, “there is nothing in the world whose meaning resides in the object itself. Meanings do not come attached to people, conditions, or experiences. Humans give the world meaning.” Humans create how, why, and wh
24、at we think about the world. The socially constructed nature of race and ethnicity is demonstrated throughout the Dave Chappelle Show. When Chappelle creates his script, he plays upon racial and ethnic and stereotypes that exist in society, yet he also is critically commenting on the very nature of
25、social constructs of race. 3Losekes discusses social construction in the text Thinking about Social Problems: An Introduction to Constructionists Perspectives (1999). Loseke (1999: 6), states that social problems are “troublesome conditions we believe affect a significant number of people.” Social p
26、roblems are problems in which people believe conditions can be changed and fixed. From this perspective, racial stereotypes can be viewed as a social problem. Loseke (1997:7) argues that social problems “are about objective conditions and people (things that exist in the physical world) and they are
27、 about subjective definitions (how we understand the world and the people in it). Throughout the Chappelle Show, Chappelle explores one of the most common social problems, racial and ethnic stereotyping. Chappelle portrays these images in an over-exaggerated way thus highlighting the ways these ster
28、eotypical images are socially constructed about that particular race or culture.Loseke (1999:16-17) states, “humans categorize conditions and people and this is important because it encourages us to react to these conditions and people in predictable ways.” She describes how humans tend to categoriz
29、e without having any experience in that particular category, making it easy for humans to group certain conditions and people together. In forming these categories Loseke claims the meanings drawn from these categories are “typifications” (an image our heads of typical kinds of things.) Since it is
30、impossible as humans to know the individuality of everything, we find it comforting to take something that we have not yet personally experienced and draw conclusions from other humans experiences and opinions (for example, all black people eat chicken). Another example of typification is shown in H
31、ortons (1993) article, in which he writes about the famous television and radio series Amos and Andy; African Americans were constructed as ignorant human beings. The person who creates a social construct, according to Loseke (1999), is a “claim-maker.”According to Loseke (1999:26-27), an important
32、concept in understanding social problems is claims and claim-making; “a claim is any verbal, visual, or behavioral statement that seeks to persuade audience members to define a condition as a social problem.” A verbal claim creates meaning through words. For example, using particular slang or deroga
33、tory terms to describe a minority group (e.g. people have described white people as “crackers,” and black people as “niggas”). A visual claim constructs images to persuade an opinion. A visual claim can be very influential because it leaves an image in our head of what we are supposed to think about
34、 that particular subject. For example, always showing particular minority group members engaged in activities (e.g. blacks smoking marijuana) is a visual claim. Behavioral claims are claims “where the social problems work involves doing something rather than saying something or creating a visual pic
35、ture of something” (Loseke1999:26). This is where a comedy routine fits. The comedian Chappelle uses skits, a behavioral claim, to draw attention to the social problem of racism.In society, it is inevitable that humans construct stereotypical images based upon widely-held assumptions. People find it
36、 necessary to create meaning to understand the reality of life. Thus, by inadvertently creating stereotypes that shape our understanding of various racial and ethnic groups. METHODSAccording to Johnson (2006:207), a content analysis is “a method of analyzing written documents that allows researchers
37、 to transform nonquantitative data into quantitative data by counting and categorizing certain variables within the data.” This study is a content analysis of season one and season two of the Chappelle Show.During the 2003-2004 period, the Chappelle Show had impressive viewer ratings. The Chappelle
38、Show was the number one cable show in its timeslot among total viewers, ranging from ages 18-49, and it was the number one cable show in its timeslot in all of television among young 4men ages 18-34. The Chappelle Show has been the highest selling television DVD release of 2004 and the third best TV
39、 DVD seller of all time (P). This study included both season one and two which aired originally on the network Comedy Central in the years 2003-2004. There was total population of thirty episodes in the first two seasons. I drew a random sample of four, one-half hour episodes to analyze. Each episod
40、e contains between three and five skits per episode. I coded only those episodes which contained racially based jokes. Thus, my total sample contained four skits from the four episodes, for a total of sixteen skits. Each skit was coded for types of racial and ethnic humor. Specifically, episodes wer
41、e coded for: styles of language, drugs and crimes, and attire.These episodes are important to this study because they reflect larger social attitudes about race. In a very short period of time, The Chappelle Show has opened up a fresh way of examining this controversial subject, for Dave Chappelle c
42、ritically approaches the subject of racial and ethnic stereotypes through humor. FINDINGSEach skit was analyzed by language used, attire worn, and crimes and drugs that were used or committed. Table 1 indicates Chappelles characters used “black” language (64%) such as: “nigga,” “iight,” “trippin,”an
43、d “nah,”and “white” language (36%) such as “malarkey,” and “reclusiveness.” Black characters tended to avoid traditional grammar structures such as “mother,” “lover,” “fighting,” and “tripping” pronouncing them as “motha,” “lova,” “fightin,” and “trippin”.TABLE 1: Stereotypical Language UsedRace f /
44、 % ExamplesBlack Language 97/64% “nigga,” “nah,” “trippin,” “iight,” “bein real”White Language 54/36% “malarkey” and “reclusiveness”Total 151/100%Table 2 illustrates the stereotypical clothing worn by characters in the skits. Black characters were shown wearing “black” attire such as: bandanas, swea
45、t suits, flat brim hat, do-rag, baggy fitting shirts, baggy fitting jeans, hoop earrings, and gold chains (56%). The White characters were shown in stereotypical “white” attire (44%) such as: button down shirts, right fitting shirt, tight fitting jeans, hooded sweat shirts, khakis, and necklaces.TAB
46、LE 2: Stereotypical Attire WornRace # / % ExamplesBlack Attire 78/56% Bandana, do-rag, baggy fitting jeans/shirt, gold chain, hooded sweat- shirtWhite Attire 60/44% Tight fitting jeans, khakis, collared shirts, button down shirtTotal 138/100%5Table 3 illustrates stereotypical use of drugs and crime.
47、 Both white and black characters were committing crimes or using drugs, but overwhelmingly 85% of black characters were shown engaged in these activities, compared to only 15% of white characters. Examples of crime and violence included: black on black violence, black on white violence, white on bla
48、ck violence, and white on white violence, smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana, and any comments related to illegal drugs.TABLE 3: Stereotypical Drugs John Moland.1959. “Humor in Negro and White Subcultures: A Study of Jokes Among University Students.” American Sociological Review 24: 61-69.Mintz,
49、Lawrence. 1985. “Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation.” American Quarterly: 37: 71-80.Wright, John. 1995. “On the Real Side: Laughing, Lying, and Signifying The underground Tradition of African- American Humor That Transformed American Culture, from Slavery to Richard Pryor.” The Journal of American History: 82:175-176._. 1997. “The New Acceptability of Ridiculing Black People.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 17:91.
