They’re Not Funny, They’re Just Bullies

For nearly three centuries, straight, white, men took it upon themselves to define the existences of everyone who was not them; women, Blacks, Asians, Gays and Lesbians, and that’s if their existences were acknowledged at all. The early days of American comedy, as was much of society, and all of pop culture, was ruled by the tastes of straight, white, cis-gender men, who made everyone that was not them, the butt of the joke, publicly hash out their racial and gender anxieties, and reinforce their superiority over those they mocked.

But comedy, like all pop culture is not static. Things that used to be funny in comedy, cease to be funny, as new generations, and new audiences grow up, change society, become more knowledgeable, more sophisticated, and more inclusive and empathetic. The Millennial and Z generations will be some of the most diverse and inclusive generations in US history, thanks to having grown up with a world of knowledge, and personal experiences, at their fingertips.

Marginalized identities, are capable now, more than ever before, of communicating to the mainstream what their lives are like, tell people that they are being hurt, why it hurts, and most importantly, be able to tell people to stop. This is what transgender men and women have been trying to impress upon people for the past thirty years.

The first minstrel shows depicted black people as lazy, ignorant, cowardly or hypersexual.