Humorous hate speech or hateful humorous speech
Here is an excerpt from a piece recently published in The Onion.
“It’s time I finally invested in a decent blazer,” said Harris, who flipped through the racks of discount merchandise, picked up a pair of stretchy black pants, and mumbled “Not dressy enough” before placing the hanger back. “It needs to strike the rare balance between professional and not completely hideous. Under $70 would also be nice…” At press time, reports confirmed Harris had abandoned her original mission to buy work clothes after becoming distracted by an aisle of snack food and picking up a bag of apple chips.”
The Onion deals in satire. You know that whatever you are going to read is a joke, and the fun comes in seeing how the joke reflects something about society. In this case, there is no shortage of working-class people starting a new job and rushing to Marshall’s to buy discounted clothes. That is why I can smile at this; I see the joke.
There is a racial element to this joke, at least for me. The people shopping at these stores are going to be disproportionately working class and disproportionately black and brown. Also, I think black people feel they need to present themselves in as professional a manner as possible when they enter into a new space, especially if that space is primarily a white one. In his first years on the job, I…
