Episode 273 with Raúl Pérez, Author of The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy, and Master Connector of Racist Humor and Systems of White Supremacy in the United States

Notes and Links to Raúl Perez’s Work

  Raul Pérez is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of La Verne. He is also the author of The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy (Stanford University Press, 2022). 

 

Buy The Souls of White Jokes

 

Raul Perez's University of LaVerne Website

 

Book Review from Oxford Review: The Souls of White Jokes

 

 

At about 1:50, Raúl talks about his early language and reading journeys

At about 5:15, Raúl notes the greatness and importance and multi-generational pull of LAUSD’s coffee cake for the Perez family

At about 6:40, Raúl details his high school academic journey and some early inspiring reads-shout out, Mr. Taylor! 

At about 9:05, Raúl talks about how college social scene readings and class discussions and formative and transformative professors changed his mindset 

At about 12:45, Raúl shouts out Netflix’s Mo as a really “engaging…springboard for discussion”

At about 16:45, Raúl responds to Pete’s questions about how humor and its study made its way into his reading and scholarship

At about 23:00, Raúl talks about seeds for his writing about humor and race and graduate school goals

At about 24:45, Raúl responds to Pete’s question about being able to watch comedy without analyzing it

At about 25:50, Raúl recounts stories of his experience taking an ethnography class of humor/standup comedy, including the ways in which race and racism affects standup comedy  

At about 27:50, Pete asks Raúl what he might do if he had a few minutes to do standup, and Raúl talks about racialized humor foisted upon him and others in a previous standup class

At about 32:00, Raúl reflects on comedians who successfully put in the work and “exercis[e] the funny bone” and “find the funny in everything”

At about 33:50, The two reflect on Dave Chappelle’s work and he and Bill Burr and others and how they deal with difficult/traumatic “material”

At about 38:00, Raúl and Pete talk about terminology n hs book and Raúl expands on his choice to avoid using the infamous hateful epithet 

At about 40:50, Raúl talks about racism “behind-the-scenes” among police officers, sometimes with officers of color targeting Black officers

At about 42:15, Raúl talks about Latinos and Mexicans and conversations about anti-Blackness and Afro-Latinos role in these discussions 

At about 44:35, Raúl talks about “cancelled” humor and skits on Saturday Night Live, including a legendary skit with Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase, and a pendulum effect with racial and racist humor

At about 49:00, Raúl segues into talking about Tom Metzger and WAR’s racist cartoons and Raúl’s book censoring racist language 

At about 50:40, Pete outlines the book’s chapter titles and asks Raúl about licensing of racist cartoons used in his book; Raúl expands on Metzger’s and others usage 

At about 54:40, Raúl details a controversial NY Post cartoon that depicted President Barack Obama

At about 56:15, Raúl responds to Pete’s question about connections between the racist humor towards President Obama and “whitelash” from recent years to the early years of the United States as a country, with President Trump a natural consequence 

At about 1:04:25, Pete notes Raúl’s coined term of “amused contempt” and states his thesis of racist humor and its “social power”

At about 1:05:30, Raúl discusses the significance of the book’s title and connections to W.E. DuBois’ famous The Souls of White Folk

At about 1:10:10, Raúl reflects on the significance of minstrel and its racist legacy and ideas of shared humor at the “expensive of the racialized group”

At about 1:12:20, Pete recounts the book’s opening with the story of Cleon Brown and compliments Raúl’s tracing such a long history with the book

At about 1:15:00, Raúl talks about how sees Trump’s upcoming presidency and its connections to racist “humor” and how he is an avatar for those who have tired of “wokeism”

At about 1:17:00, Raúl expands on Trump 2.0 and those like Elon Musk who use meme culture and racist/”anti-PC” culture to ”weaponize humor”

At about 1:21:10, Raúl gives background on the study of “disparagement humor” and its effects, as studied by Thomas E. Ford 

At about 1:24:00, Raúl talks about future writing subjects, including the “weaponization of humor in warfare,” like with the IDF in Gaza

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      Pete is very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. This week, his conversation with Episode 265 guest Carvell Wallace is up on the website. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review.

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    Please tune in for Episode 274 with Annell López, winner of Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and the author of the short story collection I’LL GIVE YOU A REASON. She is a Peter Taylor Fellow at Kenyon Review Writers Workshops, and her work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Refinery29, among others.

The episode airs on March 4.