"People Are Too Sensitive"

I engaged in a small dispute some time ago with someone who claimed jokes were most of the time not sexist, racist, homophobic, ageist, or so on, but rather people today have become too sensitive. I took a step back, immediately becoming defensive. I replied that I felt people used humor to cover up their own prejudice, especially when challenged, whether self-aware of it or not. It is one thing for a minority to use jokes against themselves, to reclaim it as their own with the intent that others cannot use it against them, and it is another for someone to make a racist joke that offends someone and asterisk it with "it was only a joke." Maybe this person I had a dispute with was no stranger to making these types of jokes with friends, utilizing these motley of "ism's," and maybe these friends "don't care" (or maybe they stay silent as a way to not be told that it was "only a joke" and they are therefore overreacting). Or maybe this person, a white male who'd never been subjected to the same level of minority status as I've described, was able to say these things from a place of superiority without being challenged. Maybe he himself hid his own prejudice under the phrase "it was only a joke." A friendly reminder to check your privilege, and to always be allies to those less fortunate. What you think may be an innocent joke could be cutting deeply into someone close to you.

Would love to hear some opinions on this, as it is not the first time people have debated this concept.

Stay loving, stay kind. The world needs more of it.