The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy

232 Pages·2022·12.338 MB·English

by  Raúl Pérez

The Souls of White Jokes
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Advance praise for
The Souls of White Jokes
“Drawing from a rich array of primary source materials, Pérez off ers a lu-
cidly written and arresting sociological treatment of how jokes reproduce
and sanction white supremacy. This is not just an exploration and indict-
ment of racist humor and the institutions and organizations that allow it;
it is an intellectual smackdown on the oft-used excuse “it was just a joke”
when confronting the humor that maintains the racial caste system in the
United States.”
— Rebecca Krefting, author of All Joking Aside:
American Humor and Its Discontents
“It is a commonplace assumption that humor is always harmless fun and
vital for our everyday well-being. In this important new book, Raúl Pérez
cogently argues that this is not invariably the case, and that jokes and jok-
ing relations can be hostile, divisive, alienating, and dehumanizing – or,
in other words, very harmful. Within a strong and well-woven theoretical
framework, The Souls of White Jokes off ers a major contribution to the criti-
cal sociology of ethnicity and racism as well as to the study of humor in key
institutions and organizations.”
—Michael Pickering, author of Blackface Minstrelsy in Britain
“This timely and important intervention shows that racism is not about
ignorance or hate, but about pleasureful solidarity, which shifts the con-
versation about what white supremacy is and why it persists.”
—Michael P. Jeff ries, author of Behind the Laughs
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THE SOULS
OF WHITE JOKES
How Racist Humor Fuels
White Supremacy
Raúl Pérez
stanford university press
Stanford, California
stanford university press
Stanford, California
©2022 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights
reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University
Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pérez, Raúl, author.
Title: The souls of white jokes : how racist humor fuels white supremacy /
Raúl Pérez.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: lccn 2021052381 (print) | lccn 2021052382 (ebook) |
isbn 9781503611481 (cloth) | isbn 9781503632332 (paperback) |
isbn 9781503632349 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Racism—United States. | Wit and humor—Social
aspects—United States. | Wit and humor—Political aspects—United
States. | Whites—United States—Attitudes. | Whites—Race identity—
United States. | United States—Race relations.
Classifi cation: lcc e184.a1 p3885 2022 (print) | lcc e184.a1 (ebook) |
ddc 305.800973—dc23/eng/20211102
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052381
lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052382
Cover type: (Title) Vocal Type Marsha, Tré Seals, (Subtitle, author) Device Korolev,
Rian Hughes
Typeset by Newgen North America in 10/15 ITC Galliard Pro
“‘But what on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?’ Then always,
somehow, some way, silently but clearly, I am given to understand that
whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen!”
W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Souls of White Folk”
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Note on Terminology ix
1 The Racial Power of Humor 1
2 Amused Racial Contempt, or a Theory
of White Racist Humor 22
3 Hiding in Plain Sight: The Violent Racist
Humor of the Far Right 50
4 Blue Humor: The Racist Insults and
Injuries of the Police 85
5 President Chimp: The Politics of
Amused Racial Contempt 123
epilogue
Racist Humor and the Cult(ure) of Whiteness 159
Acknowledgments 173
Notes 179
Index 207
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