When it comes to comedy, I was always the first person to laugh at the “distasteful jokes.”

Not because they’re funny all the time, but because I felt the need to break the ice. I’m sure you can imagine how hard it is to entertain a crowd of people who think you’re a racist.

But as I got older I felt less obligated. In fact, I wondered if being an icebreaker did more harm than good.

I always felt pressured by political correctness, but also felt a need for it after personal experiences.

For example, a mock story titled “Judge Rules White Girl Will Be Tried as Black Adult” by satirical news website The Onion was hilarious to me. One thing that made me even more comfortable with it was the fact that The Onion made no attempt to desensitize the segment.

What stood out the most, however, was the ambient acting by the extras in each scene. Like when the defendant (a white teenage female who was just convicted as an adult black male) was leaving the court, a white juror immediately clutched her purse in fear of it being stolen.

As amusing as that was, I can recall many occasions where the same thing has happened to me. At that point (after I finished laughing of course), I asked myself, “Does racial humor enforce stereotypes?” and, ultimately, “Is enforcing stereotypes through humor a good thing?”

In his study for the Journal of Communication titled “Naturalizing Racial Differences Through Comedy: Asian, Black, and White Views on Racial Stereotypes in Rush Hour 2,” Ji Hoon Park, assistant professor of communication at Hope College, writes, “Racial stereotypes in comedy are problematic precisely because they help validate racial differences through humor, thus rendering them natural and unchallengeable.”

Park later explained how comedy is considered inoffensive because, as one of the participants in his study said, “It’s not as offensive when you know it’s supposed to be funny.”

Like Park’s study, I found myself taking the jokes in the video by The Onion lightly because I know they are all in good humor.

What’s more concerning is the society’s conservative interactions after the jokes are over. Can’t we translate the level of comfort we experience in comedy in everyday life?

Park argues no, for the effect of racial humor only serves as an identifier of social labels rather than an abolisher.

“In other words, participants’ active viewing and pleasure were based on the self-validation of racial characteristics rather than on the subversion of stereotypes,” Park said.

Race is a touchy subject. Avoiding it altogether is usually the smartest idea. But where does that leave us? Separated? Misunderstood? At the risk of sounding even more cliché and sappy, I must say this: although we have different frames of references, we share the same planet.

Therefore, eliminating political correctness probably will not make every race comfortable, but it’s a start to universal understanding.