Punching Up

Understanding power dynamics is essential in understanding oppression. 

It’s safe to say that everyone holds some form of privilege — and that privilege can show in race, gender, ability, or even access to various resources. 

Though power dynamics can be difficult to digest, it first starts with acknowledging the places in which you hold the “power” in your own life and relationships. But this isn’t about acknowledging your privilege; that’s work that should already be happening. 

What’s next is to learn how to navigate that privilege — especially in the context of the most sacred pieces of humanity: interaction and behavior. We can see this idea manifest in discourse surrounding slurs and “dark humor.” When it comes to these kinds of discourse, marginalized communities often experience miscommunication with those who hold that power of privilege above them — of course, this “power of privilege” refers to societal power rather than actual, relevant power in terms of societal change, but I digress. 

The big idea is that context matters, and it’s ignorant to dismiss the necessity of context, nuance, and intersectionality when it comes to our everyday interactions. Because guess what, it is different when a white person makes a joke about black people versus when a black person makes a joke about white people. It just is. 

When people in those positions of privilege or power make comments that “punch down,” stereotypes will continue to be reinforced rather than subverted. But intersectionality is a huge part of this discussion as well. 

We can see intersectionality become extremely prevalent in the way some people with one marginalized identity feel entitled to make comments about all kinds of marginalized people. This often manifests in white women making jokes at the expense of queer people and queer men making jokes at the expense of women. 

This majorly plays into the arguments surrounding “dark humor.” It’s parallel to the idea that when it comes to controversial topics, only those with that experience should joke about it. Think of it this way: it’s one thing for you to make a joke about your dog dying, but if one of your friends makes a joke about your dog dying, it’s gonna cut a little bit deeper. 

I know what many of you are probably thinking:

Everyone has gotten so soft; people can’t make jokes anymore.

And no, that’s absolutely not what I’m saying. What I am saying is that if your entire humor is based around the belittling and subjugation of already marginalized people, and you have nothing about yourself to joke about, maybe you’re just not as funny as you thought.

• college
• friendships
• gender
• lgbtq
• mental health
• privilege
• race
• women