Using parody and satire to help understand diversity
Jefferson Community College students got an interesting look at diversity Monday. Matt Glowacki, a Wisconsin man born without legs, uses his personal experiences mixed with pop culture to get students to talk about stereotypes and ignorance. As our Brian Dwyer reports, Glowacki says laughter can be the best medicine, especially in cases where the joke is about what makes people different.
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WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- Matt Glowacki says the only thing someone can do to offend him, is be ignorant. Born without legs, he says the best way to get people to understand is often laughter.
"What you need to do is have some commonality and some experience and make it funny. It's a lot easier to bridge a lot of difficult subjects than trying to be offensive or in someone's face," He said.
As he talks about a variety of issues, like weight, race, disabilities and more, Glowacki focuses on two popular TV shows that some say can be very offensive to diversity, Family Guy and South Park.
But he says he sees the shows as being much deeper, being based on All in the Family, using parody and satire to raise awareness of issues and showing exactly how people look when they are ignorant.
"In the moment people watched and understood it was a different reflection on society to make people think about if this is how it should really be. All the same techniques are being in Family Guy and South Park," Glowacki said.
And students say not only is the program an eye opener, but the lessons really hit home.
"This kind of helped me realize a little bit, we do it jokingly, but we don't really realize. We know we're joking, but the other people may not," JCC Student Dustin Dosztan said.
"When it comes to speaking out, a lot of people have a hard time doing it. I think this helps kind of say well, it's alright. If you see something you're not comfortable with, speak up, even if that person doesn't seem hurt," Fellow student Chelsie Roberts added.
The students say the program will also affect the way they watch TV, to think about the real issue, how it affects their lives and the moral of the story.
Besides speaking about diversity, Glowacki also is an athlete having been a volleyball player with the US Paralympic Team. He currently builds custom wheelchairs for athletes.