Racial humour in Finnish schools: reinforcing and resisting racism, and the difficulty of intervening

This ethnographic study analysed how racial humour, i.e. humour dealing with race, is practised in schools, and examines the functions it gives to racial power. It consisted of fieldwork and interviews with pupils and staff with various racial positions in lower secondary schools in Finland. The study found that racial humour is practised in schools to reinforce and to resist racialisation, but that is also has ambivalent interpretations. First, reinforcement reproduces racism and exclusion and serves to normalise racism in schools. Second, humour to resist racism makes racialising hierarchies visible by ridiculing them, simultaneously offering peer support via mutual recognition of the racialising powers. Third, the functions of racial humour are not always clear, making it difficult to interpret the outcome of this humour in the school context. Our study broadens the understanding of the different ways racial humor is used in school settings, thereby contributing significantly to teacher education.