ABSTRACT
While the interactional dynamics and sociopolitical effects of race talk have increasingly been examined by scholars in sociolinguistics, race studies, and education, less attention has been paid to the role of laughter in reproducing and contesting everyday racism. This chapter takes laughter seriously through a focus on what the author calls “white laughter,” which endorses racially hegemonic humor by rendering people of color the objects of intense monitoring within white public space. Through a discourse analysis of a classroom activity implemented as part of an innovative sociolinguistics curriculum for high school students, the author examines how students and instructors in a majority-white classroom talk and laugh about examples of racial humor drawn from popular culture. The analysis reveals that participants’ deployment of white laughter and related discursive strategies ultimately upheld ideologies of colorblindness and postracialism. Yet at times, various members of the classroom—particularly students of color—challenged these ideologies by closely analyzing the racializing nature of the texts being discussed and by problematizing laughter as a response. Based on these findings, the author argues that dismantling white public space in schools requires not only antiracist curricula but also greater attention to all aspects of classroom discourse, including laughter.
