When ‘Just Joking’ Is No Joke: How to Respond to Biased or Offensive Jokes

There are many benefits of humor. A good joke can ease tension in a stressful situation. Humor can connect people and bring them together. Jokes can bring levity to a situation that begs for lightheartedness. Being funny can signal to others who you are.  Humor can even open a conversation that previously felt closed or off-limits. 

However, jokes and humor, when they target social identity groups, can do the opposite. They can make people feel unsafe, disconnected, excluded and marginalized. Unfortunately, this happens all too often in schools and classrooms.

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