Discrimination has existed since the dawn of man. We have all experienced this in one form or another and have sometimes discriminated without even realizing it. There have been many people who have fought against discrimination by teaching others. Using anger, fear and guilt many have spread the word to be more tolerant of others, but a less common way to achieve this is through humor. Wole Soyinka does this well in his poem “Telephone Conversation” where he takes a more humorous and ironic approach to discrimination. The humorous approach to racism in “Telephone Conversation” should be used more in teachings to further spread the stupidity of discrimination. Many people are unaware of things that happened in the past; from slavery to the civil rights movement and all the things in between that have shaped the way discrimination is today. Most become bored with these topics and when they are learned in school they go in one ear and out the other never to be thought of again. The humorous tone of the “phone conversation” can help change this by teaching others about racism better than conventional methods. Elizabeth Weinstein wrote an article about Mark Shatz and Frank LoSchiavo, two Ohio University professors who argue that humor can help learning. During their study they concluded that students are more interested in learning when humor is applied. Shatz and LoSchiavo have integrated humor into their online lessons with positive results. Having funny jokes and cartoons related to the topic increased the number of times students interacted in the discussion board and overall increased their interest in the class (Weinstein). Their use of humor in their teachings helps people participate more and...... middle of paper ......r in “Telephone Conversation” can be used to educate others but, as they warn Greengross, it should be done carefully. Many have spread the word about discrimination in many different ways. Humor, being a least used method for this, can be the most effective. As Mark Shatz and Frank LoSchiavo have shown, humor can help people be more engaged in class and learn better. It can help them get out of their comfort zone and participate more in class. While Javier Muñoz-Basols proved that humor can help people remember things better. Because fun ideas are remembered more easily than uninteresting ones. Through my experience growing up, humor can be a very powerful way to teach others about racism, but as Gil Greengross warns, it must be done well. Soyinka achieves this in "Telephone Conversation" and many others should use his method in their own teachings. Work cited