Ballard attempted to argue in Back Talk that there was a difference between people who laughed at the hillbilly jokes because they believe them and those who just get them. Initially, it is difficult to understand this argument without placing that same argument in a different perspective. An equivalent argument would be if someone made a “black people be like…” joke without actually ever having known a black person versus one black person making the joke to another black person. With this new understanding, I now see exactly where she is coming from and agree with her argument. There is very clearly a difference between the two perspectives. The delicate balance of her next argument sways between whether or not buying these stereotypical products contributes to reinforcing it. Unfortunately, it does. While the person buying that product is only doing so out of sheer irony,  the person behind them is learning something from that observation. The thought then becomes “If that person who would meet the stereotype says its okay then it must be okay!” As a direct result of merely one week in this course I no longer feel comfortable buying products like the ones discussed by Ballard. Once you’ve been in the shoes of the people you used to joke about, you can no longer go back to making jokes the same old way.