A PRE-EMPTIVE “NONOFFENSIVE” STRIKE
How do you roll out acceptable standards in your classroom or workplace to minimize the chances of anyone getting offended? What steps do YOU need to take? Here are a few steps to consider:
3 STEPS:
1. Careful Review---Carefully review your humor, music, videos, or any other form of media you plan on using. If you have any reservations about their appropriateness, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
2. Peer Review---Pick 2 or 3 colleagues to review your material regularly before you use it, especially if you have any doubts. A fresh perspective or 3 can be eyeball opening to what you didn't see in your review.
3. Setting the Standards---On the 1st class of the semester OR other appropriate time with co-workers,
a. set standards for offensive material with everyone involved. You propose and define the categories and adjust accordingly based on their feedback. Make sure everyone is clear on what is appropriate and inappropriate material---where the LINE IS DRAWN, and
b. issue a disclaimer to all students OR employees regarding your own behavior to hold you accountable to those standards, such as
“Should I ever offend anyone with anything I say or do, or any print material, music, or videos offend you, please know it wasn’t intended. I may make mistakes. Tell me about any material that offends you so I can change it before the next class or semester.”
This 3b disclaimer is extremely important. We rarely hear that anywhere. Instead, to the contrary, we hear performers and, possibly, even our colleagues and friends tell us they don’t care who they offend. They often do that with great pride, puffing themselves up, as if offending people intentionally and having no respect for another person’s values or principles is a badge of honor. That should not be your position in the classroom or workplace.
If the preceding steps are taken regularly, you should be able to minimize offensive jokes and media from rearing their ugliness in your workplace and, more importantly, minimize the chances of hurting the people with whom you work every day. At least, when you do make mistakes, and you will, you’ll be prepared to handle them appropriately.
Well, that’s the end of my offensive blog series. Can you believe it? I know you couldn't wait for my anti-climatic, predictable finale. I hope at least one idea hit you that was of value to think about in your teaching or position in the workplace. Let me know your thoughts.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
THE 7 HABITS
This series has addressed the following categories of offensive material:
1. PUT-DOWNS
2. SARCASM
3. RIDICULE
4. SEXUAL CONTENT AND INNUENDO
5. PROFANITY
6. VULGARITY
7. SENSITIVE PERSONAL ISSUES AND TRAGEDIES
There’s been a lot of reaction to these topics on the LinkedIn higher education groups. Since most professionals do not systematically consider these categories and the consequences of offending people in their daily conduct in the classroom or workplace, I hope that some of the content, examples, and guidelines in my blogs and the healthy discussion of these topics will generate some thought on WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE.
The consequences of disregarding my OFFENSIVE ALERT can be devastating to your students and your co-workers. Remember: This is all about them, not you.
If you are serious about making this work, you need to consider a pre-emptive strike to set standards everyone can accept before you or your students offend someone.
SHOULD YOU MIRANDIZE YOUR STUDENTS OR CO-WORKERS?
This blog level one head conjures up the mental image of a Shawshankian line-up of our students or co-workers facing a wall, with their hands up and feet spread, as they’re read their rights on what offensive content is out-of-bounds in the classroom or workplace. While some you may be drooling at the idea of executing such a sweep, I don’t recommend it for two reasons:
1. It may be difficult to find a clear wall long enough without pictures of dead past deans or college presidents on it.
2. That’s probably not the best approach to get these people to buy in to these rules of behavior or conduct for their learning or work environment.
The final blog in this series will proffer specific guidelines for executing a pre-emptive strike against offensive material in your classroom and workplace. It’s almost over.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
VULGARITY
Telling jokes with vulgar images and sounds for laughs belongs in a comedy club or a Jim Carrey movie, but not in your classroom or workplace. Similarly, any music or video clips containing vulgar material is out of bounds.
EXAMPLES: Who can’t forget the flatulence and toilet humor in Blazing Saddles, the Nutty Professor, and the animated PG-rated Shrek and Shrek 2? Most recently, the TV cable series Jackass takes the prize for “Extremely Vulgar.” What an honor. The parents of executive producer Trip Taylor must be so proud. (Note: Sarcasm is excusable when writing about vulgarity.)
SENSITIVE PERSONAL ISSUES
Many years ago, Jay Leno launched a relentless joke attack night after night on former New York Yankee Darryl Strawberry’s cocaine addiction. The jokes were so cruel and inappropriate that they still stand out in my mind as one example of “humor” in this category. He probably is still doing those types of jokes with other celebrities now.
Entertainment, political, and sports personalities are especially vulnerable to jocular barbs about divorce, abortion, sexual infidelity, cosmetic surgery, DUI arrests, alcoholism, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and personal tragedies. This category also includes what are called “sick jokes” in the humor literature, which make fun of death, disease, dysfunction, or deformity, usually following a significant disaster or tragedy.
CELEBRITY TARGETS: Individuals who engage in humor on these topics or disseminate those types of YouTube videos in the classroom or workplace exhibit screamingly bad taste. The jabs at entertainers and sports celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Tiger Woods, and all the politicians, religious leaders, and talk-show comedians (aka David Letterman) guilty of sexual indiscretions are examples of this type of derisive humor by talk-show comedians? Steer clear of this category. DO NOT jab your students, co-workers, or celebrities.
FINALE: My next final blog in this long-winded series on offensive material will address how to Mirandize your students and co-workers on rules for humor and media to minimize the chances of offending them. Refreshments will be provided.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
What better way to start off the week on Easter Monday then blog on profanity and vulgarity with a sarcastic rhetorical question? Talk about blogger’s license! Instead of an Easter Egg Hunt, we’re going on an Expletive Hunt. However, before we start bleeping out bad words, there is one additional bad news thought I want to add on the previous sexually explicit topic.
SEXUAL CONTENT AND INNUENDO (Addendum)
One addition to my previous blog is sexting, a combination of “sex” and “texting,” I think. Downloading and texting sexually explicit material from the Internet at large, YouTube, and personal videos in class or in the workplace presents another new set of problems. If it’s out there to abuse, the technology enables evil minds to find it and disseminate it. Stop it before it starts if it’s within your power to do so.
PROFANITY
You hear expletives just about everywhere. What the “&!%#” is going on? It’s pervasive in our culture and workplace. There are no boundaries or profanity ceiling. In water-cooler jokes and conversations with students and colleagues, usually their first or second sentence or fragment will set the profanity tone for the dialogue, hopefully not the barrage of filthy, Tarantino-type language. (NOTE: Quinton Tarantino’s Motto—“No Profanity Left Behind.”)
EXAMPLES: This "blue material" appears in all forms of media. What used to be considered the language of police officers, soldiers, athletes, and stand-up comedians is now used regularly by most comedians, foulmouthed TV cops and perpetrators (Law & Order: SVU, CSI: NY, NCIS, The Closer, Reno 911!), lawyers (The Good Wife), doctors (House, Grey’s Anatomy), and school kids (South Park). Movies rated PG-13 and worse are larded with gratuitous profanity. YouTube videos run the gamut.
LEVEL OF DISCOURSE: This coarsening of media in our culture suggests that nothing is sacrosanct. However, despite the increasing frequency of profane language around us, its use in the classroom is unnecessary and inappropriate. It cannot be bleeped out of your lecture or conversation with students. Whenever it occurs, its crudity debases the level of discourse and the “discourser.”
Please consider what you say and how you say it. Your students are always listening. Be creative in your use of our language and stretch your vocabulary, and, maybe even, encourage your students to do the same. Consider the plethora of unusual words you can use to express your elation or discontent. Don’t stoop to the lowest common denominator.
Next up is vulgarity. We’re coming to the end of this series on offensive humor and media. WHEW!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
RIDICULE
DESCRIPTION:It doesn’t get any nastier. Ridicule may be a jest that makes fun of someone sportively or good-humoredly, but usually it is intended to humiliate. It may consist of words and actions, such as scornful or contemptuous laughter. It is usually mean spirited and malicious, and may include sarcasm or other derisive, taunting, or jeering comments. Motives for and functions of this type of insult-humor may range from the actual expression of hostility to self-deprecation to ironic reversal, where the insult is turned around and used against the attacker.
EXAMPLES: In the popular comedy Meet the Parents, the character Greg Focker (played by Ben Stiller) was ridiculed throughout the movie by several hostile members of his fiancée’s family for being a male nurse and, at the end of the movie, for his real first name, Gaylord (“Gay Focker”).
Comedian, composer, author, and producer Mel Brooks describes the power of ridicule in his smash Tony-award winning Broadway musical The Producers. (Note: Brooks also produced movies with the same title preceding and succeeding the show.) In an interview on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace (April 5, 2001), Brooks noted that the greatest form of revenge he could execute against Adolph Hitler is ridicule:
"How do you get even with him [Hitler]? There’s only one way to get even. You have to bring him down with ridicule…. If you can make people laugh at him [Hitler], then you’re one up on him. It’s been one of my lifelong jobs to make the world laugh at Adolph Hitler."
Brooks did just that in the show’s signature production number, “Springtime for Hitler.”
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: Any personal characteristic can be held up to ridicule. A foreign accent, a lisp, a stutter, an unusual gesture, and a physical disability represent common targets. For example, one of the lawyers on the defunct TV series Boston Legal, Jerry Espenson (played by Christian Clemenson, who was promoted to M.E. on CSI: Miami), had a condition known as Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of autism). In numerous episodes, he was ridiculed repeatedly by his colleagues and clients for his awkward and strange physical symptoms.
BOTTOM LINE: Ridiculing a student in the classroom or a faculty or staff member in a meeting to embarrass or humiliate that person is inexcusable. Be sensitive to unusual physical characteristics and disabilities. Try to understand their source and resist every temptation to ridicule them.
Next, I move on to sexual content and innuendo. Isn’t it amazing that blog time and words are being spent on these topics in an effort to raise your consciousness level about how you teach? Unless you’re willing to make mistakes like I did, your sensitivity to offensiveness needs to be fine-tuned, and, even then, you’ll probably offend. It is a constant battle with which I still struggle in my presentations. I hope these examples and descriptions are helpful.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
PUT-DOWNS
Ya gotta love ‘em. Most everybody does it. The put-down may be the most ubiquitous form of humor. Everywhere we look, from Leno to Conan (Where ever you are!) to Letterman, to images of professionals on sitcoms, to colleagues, and even to our closest friends and our families, the put-down is inescapable.
Check out the regular insults spewed by Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie) at his colleagues, boss, associates, and patients on House. Lawyer Denny Crane (played by William Shatner) on the now defunct, but great, TV series Boston Legal was just as insensitive in his put-downs of racial and religious groups and people with physical disabilities.
DISPARAGEMENT HUMOR: Tendentious or disparagement humor belittles an individual or group that has been victimized, or that has suffered some misfortune or act of aggression. Sometimes it is rather harmless in the context of kidding around or teasing; at other times it can be mean, cruel, and hurtful, albeit a powerful weapon for verbal abuse. Freud believed this to be an important function of humor, allowing people to express aggressive and hostile feelings in a “socially acceptable” manner. There is even research evidence that people enjoy put-downs more when they have negative attitudes toward the victim.
Although there may be a time and a place for put-down humor, such as in those over-advertised videos of Friar’s Club Celebrity Roasts emceed by the late Dean Martin and others, the classroom is definitely not the place. Even recent versions of those roasts have become mean-spirited, profane, and vulgar.
HIGHER EDUCATION EXAMPLES: In higher education as elsewhere, the perpetrator is usually in a superior position in the organizational food chain compared to the victim. Since the victim, which is often the student, administrative assistant, TA, RA, or lower rank colleague, is already in a vulnerable position, the put-down by a lofty faculty member or dean can be devastating. This behavior is part of the bullying mentality and incivility in the workplace that is on the rise.
In the classroom and department, a faculty put-down may be followed by the words, “I was just joking” or “I was only kidding.” This is the typical “redeeming” strategy to get the faculty member off the hook for the direct hit (aka put-down insult). It never does redeem and never will. Anyone who does that should be reprimanded.
SPECIFIC TARGETS TO AVOID: I suggest you avoid the following specific targets of put-downs in all forms of media in the classroom and workplace:
• Popular, entertainment, or political personalities
• Race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, gender, religion, or sexual orientation
• Physical characteristics (e.g., fat, thin, short, tall, blonde, pregnant, bald, or all of the preceding)
• Physical disabilities or handicaps
• Mental handicaps or illnesses
Also, don’t even think about these put-downs of your students, administrative assistant, TA, RA, and colleagues.
ALTERNATIVE HUMOR: Creating humor that builds your students up rather than tearing them down is not easy. However, yielding to the temptation to tear down can produce the negative consequences described previously.
Are you having fun yet? Next topic is sarcasm, which is almost as much fun as put-downs. What do you think about these issues? Have you had experiences you would like to share? Please comment.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
IMPACT ON STUDENTS (continued)
My previous blog listed 6 possible negative effects of offending any student in your class. So what’s the impact?
DISCONNECT: Does the word disconnect come to mind? It should. It's the paragraph head. Those emotional effects can squash a student’s motivation and spirit. More importantly, a single offensive comment can irreparably damage your relationships with those offended students. If collaborative learning activities are an integral part of your teaching repertoire, that collaboration could be uncomfortable or impossible based on the offensive remarks you made to any student. That student may intentionally avoid you to minimize the chance of confrontation. This is an individual issue in each offense because what is offensive to one student may not be offensive to other students.
CONNECT: The aforementioned negative effects of offensive media content are exactly the opposite of the positive effects to accrue from many of the uses of media in the first place. One primary purpose of humor, music, and videos is to improve relationships and connections by leveraging content and media to which students can relate. For example, nonoffensive humor and media content can break down barriers, relax, open up, and reduce stress, tension, and anxiety to foster connections between you and your students. It can grab and maintain the students’ attention and ability to focus or refocus on a particular point.
BEST TEACHERS: Furthermore, consider the characteristics of the “best teachers.” Use of offensive material is inconsistent with some of the affective character attributes of effective teachers, such as sensitivity, caring, understanding, compassion, and approachability.
MAJOR CATEGORIES OF OFFENSIVE CONTENT
In the humor research literature, joke types usually fit the following themes: superiority, aggression, hostility, malice, derision, cruelty, disparagement, stupidity, sex, and ethnic put-downs. Is there anything positive or nonoffensive in that list? I don’t think so.
The problem is that these themes are also prominent in music, movies, music videos, YouTube, and other media products that we could potentially use in our classroom as teaching tools. For example, some music, videos, and comedy with big name performers carry warning labels of “Adult Content.” These media have become increasing risqué by attacking and maligning the police, women, and political and “establishment” figures and issues. They are also chock full of obscenities, profanities, vulgarity, and other crude and explicit language.
I’ve identified seven major categories of offensive content: (1) put-downs, (2) sarcasm, (3) ridicule, (4) profanity, (5) vulgarity, (6) sexual content and innuendo, and (7) sensitive personal experiences. This material appears in jokes, music lyrics, and video content.
My future blogs will address those 7 categories.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHAT IS OFFENSIVE?
Definition: It seems that we should know what is offensive when we see or hear it. We do, but it’s not that simple. Any medium that offends is based on an individual, subjective interpretation. Consider this definition:
Any word, object, or action that violates a person’s values, moral principles, or norms of behavior is offensive.
The operative word here is VIOLATION. A significant violation is what offends. The determination of that violation is very personal. You can not take a vote in your classroom and determine by a majority what is offensive to your students or not. It’s an individual, reflexive reaction. Ah, the plot thickens. Therein lies the difficulty of determining teaching material that could be offensive.
Examples: An example of violation is sexist jokes. They offend feminists because they stereotype and degrade women. Racist or ethnic humor offends people who are strongly committed to the principles of human dignity. Belching and other bodily sounds in comedies such as Shrek, The Nutty Professor, and Doctor Doolittle 2 offend many adults because such noises violate propriety; other adults and children find such behavior hilarious.
The level of attachment or commitment to principles may determine whether the medium is offensive. A violation of others, such as put-downs, does not produce as strong an attachment as a violation of oneself. Disparaging and vulgar lyrics about women in rap music and videos would constitute a personal violation to women. Lyrics, dialogue, and jokes at the expense of other people are more acceptable to performers than spewing put-downs of themselves. Why? Because they are much more committed to their own dignity and comfort than that of others.
IMPACT ON STUDENTS
When a student is offended by something we say, do, or present, he or she experiences this personal violation. What emotional effects are manifested from this offense? It can produce the following negative effects:
• Withdrawal
• Resentment
• Anger
• Tension
• Anxiety
• Turning off/tuning out
If we are offended by something we see on TV, in the movies, or at a concert and exhibit those reactions, we can turn it off or walk out. Our students have no where to go if they're offended by a YouTube clip we showed in class. They have to come back to class over and over again as they fester anger and resentment toward you. Quite possibly, you have lost those students for the semester and may not even be aware it.
My next blog will examine those responses further and suggest a few guidelines for minimizing the chances of these problems from occurring.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
DISCLAIMER: This blog series deals with censorship in the classroom. Despite our academic freedom, the issue here is exercising your best professional judgment and discretion to set boundaries on what material could offend students and destroy your classroom environment. It is not my intention to preach, but to inform based on 30 years of teaching statistics and measurement with what most faculty would consider over-the-top methods involving humor, a variety of media, and drama. I learned the hard way at the expense of several students along my journey. I hope these blogs will spare you and your students those lessons.
METASTASIS OF OFFENSIVE MATERIAL
Offensive material is metastasizing throughout our culture. It permeates every nook and cranny and is spreading into our classrooms. Consider the following:
WRITERS, DIRECTORS, AND PERFORMERS: We already know there are whack-jobs everywhere. But here I’m thinking of specific whacky writers, directors, and performers who have lost their minds. Hannibal Lecter has dined on their brains? Why do so many (a) stand-up comedians on Comedy Central and in comedy clubs, (b) writers for commercial media, TV, and movies, and (c) singers or rappers seem addicted to content that pushes the boundaries of profanity, vulgarity, sexuality, and political incorrectness, or is just plain out there to offend?
For example, Quinton Tarantino has become infamous for the barrage of filthy, profane language, violence, and sexuality in all of his movies. If there is a substantive message to be conveyed in one of his films that would be valuable to your students, should that clip be shown?
DON’T CULTURAL NORMS SET THE STANDARD? Rather than reflecting prevailing norms and tastes, some of the content in the products of our culture seem to be lowering them. The producers have trained consumers like our impressionable students and us to accept progressively lower standards of language and behavior. For example, many movies are edgy, cryptic, potty-mouthed dramas that mutilate the old proverbial envelope. This sinking of standards enables their work to stand out in an increasingly crowded field. Profits outweigh whatever criticism results. Falling standards, consequently, become self-fulfilling. Each new breach of the existing “standard” establishes a new, lower standard that comes to be seen as the norm, at least until the next breach.
You need to define what is potentially offensive and set explicit guidelines to prevent it from invading your classroom. The next blog will tackle a definition and then move on to identifying specific types of material.
It doesn’t matter whether you agree with the list I present. The decision you have to make to where you are going to draw the line—set the standards for your classroom. Every instructor may draw the line at a different point. That LINE is the over-riding bottom line for these blogs, if you ride over lines.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHY STANDARDS?
The issue of offensive material in the classroom is usually not discussed. We have academic freedom to do just about anything we want under the guise of “teaching.” The problem is that NOW the intersection of our culture with the technology has significantly changed the rules of the game.
Yup, the Standards Police have arrived! BEWARE! As many of you already know, I have written on this topic in all of my books and several articles and blogs. Why? Because what we model or permit in the classroom, especially anything negative or contentious, will most likely be emulated by our students and pushed to the next level.
We have a responsibility to set appropriate guidelines and standards in our classroom as a learning environment and in our workplace. We need to filter what is in the culture before it contaminates our domains and diminishes our control and effectiveness. We need to sift through all of the material and extract what is positive, uplifting, and constructive to facilitate learning, not impede it. Anything that can offend our students can destroy their learning spirit and our classroom atmosphere.
SO WHERE’S THE PROBLEM?
The problem is (Are you ready? Do you want the truth? Can you handle the truth?): Media in our culture are OUT OF CONTROL. What we read, listen to, and see on TV, the Internet (particularly YouTube and social media), and Comedy Central, and in movies, theaters, and comedy clubs is now stretching the limits of decency. Much of that material is blatantly offensive and would be inappropriate in the classroom. I’m not saying that it is not entertaining; it just doesn’t belong in your classroom or department.
This blog series will address this problem and how you can set standards for a safe, productive, yet, also exciting, learning environment. I hope you will stick around.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
