Hokum p. 19 - 36

The short stories from Hokum definitely took me aback with its blatant play off social issues. Each story marked a different sort of social commentary in correspondence with what felt like witty/sarcastic dialogue. While I can definitely find and understand where the humor within each piece comes into play, I couldn't bring myself to laugh at the darkness that was attempted to be made light of. Now don't get me wrong, I was absolutely intrigued with each of the works, but when humor doesn't just allude to discrimination or social injustice and it blatantly portrays the struggle of a minority group trying to make light of oppression, it's really hard to find a connection between that and humor. Predominantly, On Being Crazy struck me the hardest with its glaring discrimination.

On Being Crazy's play on social equality used in a completely inappropriate context really found a place within me. I understand attempting to make light of living in oppression (especially with how many found humor during times of the Holocaust), but this is a direct reflection of somebody living freely, yet still struggling to live in normality. I shudder to think I use this type of humor to make fun of my own minority status. While the sarcasm is present within the piece, seeing the use of racial slurs really took me aback in that a person facing oppression would play off the term that defines one as subordinate to society.

Personally, I couldn't really find myself as a minority within On Being Crazy. I guess, coming from absolutely different backgrounds really plays a definite part of what would be defined as funny in a social context for an African-American and myself. With so many other problems occurring with social injustice during the time this piece was written there were much larger problems to deal with than that of a slur that denotes oppression.