Currently, I sit here in this class thinking about where I intellectually and emotionally stand in this class. Although I wasn't able to read the last of Hokum, I still feel that I have input on the subject without knowing what is precisely happening with such-and-such character or this or that time period. I get it, yet I still feel at a disadvantage in this class. From my mid-term essay, you can probably grasp that I'm enjoying the content of this class but sitting here, surrounded by my peers it's difficult for me to speak. Strange, coming from me, am I right? I am the funny guy (or I'd at least like to think so at times), but because of that I feel pressured to not talk about my opinion. When I don't, which is quite often, I feel subordinate to most in this room, as if I'm being judged for having a legitimately serious opinion. I've challenged myself by taking this course and being accepted into the honors college, because this a deterrent from my usual academic curriculum. This is a complete 180 degree change from my advertising and film production mind-set. It is a positive struggle, if you will.
As I feel this class is absolutely beneficial to the idea of thinking outside the box, I constantly find myself re-thinking of where I stand. What I've found is that I've been able to combine the technological aspect of my major in a way to express myself within this class. I am not dumb, nor subordinate to anyone in this class. I have to keep telling myself that. I may not always read before class begins, I still have an opinion on the matters that we discuss in class. I care very deeply about the history behind African-American humor, because I am, in short, a minority. When it comes to sharing my opinion about the various aspects about this humor and the various humor and subjects we discuss in class, I am thankful that I have social media to share my voice. I may not always be heard in class, and at times, I may look like a fool, but I know I'm not. I'm thankful that I have the ability to express myself through social media, because I have an actual outlet to speak my mind with a serious tone.
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From the blatant use of racial slurs to the presentation of slavery and oppression shown, I found myself struggling to connect with how this could be humorous. But it was this struggling to connect that better abled to connect me to these various works. Humor is found in a variety of fashions. From sarcastic to the absurd, from the grotesque to the acceptable. It is how each individual makes it out to be, and while we've discussed that time and time again in class, it's very easy to lose sight of that when we're taken out of our comfort zones. As horrible it is to laugh at such oppressive stories, it's best to take these stories and dialogue into the context in which they were written. They were meant to be real, but relative. Relative to those that can relate. The various types of humor found in Hokum weren't meant to please every audience, it wasn't made to muster a chuckle from every individual who read through them. Each story had a background that could truly only by understood by those endearing the times of slavery, oppression and racism.
Being a minority in various aspects, I was able to set realize that during these changing times that I, myself, am still struggling to be accepted in society. I find myself constantly in oppressive situations where harsh terms are flung around with no care as to what psychological and emotional harm they cause on the movement I'm trying so hard to be a part of. Oppression isn't something to make light of, but that is exactly how we, as minorities, fight against. We make a joke of it. Words can't hurt if we make them our own. Let's take a negative slur and turn it against our oppressors. It's with this realization that allowed me to place myself within the context many of the stories of Hokum were written in.
I am now so much better connected with understanding the humor of other cultures that lack a majority status. As previously stated, oppression is nothing to make light of, but when you're the one being oppressed it's sometimes the only way out.
When I was reading the passages from Hokum, I came about similar thoughts as you did. I feel like the stories were exemplar of the positive effects of humor as mentioned in Comic Relief in that humor has a critical, cohesive and coping function. They were a way to indirectly make a comment on the current social situation and also to make light of it, making it easier to cope with.
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