Semana Dos; Blog Dos- 399 Palabras

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Polaroid (individual):One meal, we were watching what appeared to be a Spanish comedy sitcom with our host. The premise of the show was that a white young woman fell in love with a black young man The sitcom made many jokes about his skin color and had many elements of cultural appropriation with the intention of humor. This is something that would not be considered acceptable television in America, and the degrading humor made me uncomfortable. Reflecting on this demanded CQ strategy, as I considered not only that I disagreed with the show, but why I disagreed (Livermore, 2015). I reflected on the ways in which my morals are affected by my own culture and consider the validity of Spanish culture as well.







Postcard (relational): Relationally, I had to use CQ action to react in a way that I felt comfortable with, but also in a way that was respectful to my host mom (Livermore, 2015). Our host mom was laughing and repeated many of the lines of the show, making it appear that she was very familiar with the humor. She explained the plot of the episode to us in more elementary Spanish terms, assuming that our lack of laughter meant we didn’t understand the show. While I did not agree with the show, it was important that I did not disrespect my host mom. For this reason, I responded to her in Spanish, saying that I understood and thanking her for explaining the show to us and then laughed. While this may not be considered appropriate humor in the United States, it was more important in that moment for me to respect the effort my host mom was making in taking the time to eat with us and explain the show to us.







Billboard (social): Things considered taboo in American culture may not be considered so in other cultures and vice versa. According to Spain Culture Smart, while Spain as a whole is considered to be a tolerant culture, people of different colors are not always accepted (Aguado, 2016). The book describes a long-standing prejudice against people of color, and foreigners may be stereotyped as being associated with crime. The humor being tightly tied to black skin color shows that race humor is not something considered offensive within these cultural norms. This very different from American culture where derogatory humor about race would likely not be received well by an American audience.

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