‘I Need the White Pill!’ – A Creative Exploration of How Minority Flemish Youth Employ Ethnic Humour for Identity Construction

Abstract

This article explores how young people with minoritized ethnic (mostly Moroccan or Turkish backgrounds) and religious (Muslim) identities in Flanders employ humour for identity construction. The participants created comedy sketches that featured ‘ethnic humour’, which focuses on the characteristics and stereotypes of different ethnic, racial, and national groups. Thematic analysis revealed how humour serves as a powerful tool for minority youth to navigate self-identity and contest the sociopolitical contexts that shape their identities. By making fun of the social contexts that force them to enact ridiculous stereotypes, as well as mocking the taken-for-granted assumption that white culture is the norm, the participants challenged dominant systems of oppression that interpellate them as ethnic and religious subjects. Furthermore, humour played a crucial role in mediating the different lived experiences of the participants and the white atheist researcher throughout the study; as a result, their interactions provided a rich source for jokes and identity mapping as well. Through an analysis of the comedy sketches and researcher–participant interactions, this article examines the role of minority youth as humour producers and performers, hitherto a neglected area of scholarship. As such, it furthers an understanding of the dynamic interplay between humour, identity, and power.