Paul Beatty Talks to BV About His Latest Book, 'Hokum'

Author Paul Beatty is back in the swing of things with his latest effort, ‘Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor,’ which hits stores Jan. 17. Author of ‘Tuff’ and ‘Joker, Joker, Deuce,’ Beatty, a 43-year-old Los Angeles native, is renowned for pushing the envelope. “I write because I’m too afraid to steal, too ugly to act, too weak to fight, and too stupid in math to be a Cosmologist,” the irreverent scribe once said. With ‘Hokum,’ he collected humorous writings from the likes of W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, H. Rap Brown, Mike Tyson, Suzan-Lori Parks and Lord Finesse among others. We recently interviewed Paul Beatty about ‘Hokum’s’ controversial cover image and the overall state of black humor.

How has the controversy surrounding 'Hokum's' cover affected your ability to promote the book? Is it true that interviews have been canceled because of it?

Yeah, as far as I know a few interviews have been canceled, mostly with media outlets which target black audiences. A 'Publisher’s Weekly' article about the controversy referred to an “African-American glossy” that called the publisher in a huff. Maybe it was 'Ebony' or 'Weave Shall Overcome' magazine. Who knows?

You have stated in light of the controversy that you thought some people were offended because of the internalized nature of racism and how much people see all things related to blackness as offensive on some level. Can you expand on that?

Not without digging myself into a deeper hole. Look, the base iconography of Earthbound blackness is the perception that it’s inherently lesser than -- with the bothersome tendency to be surprisingly inventive in an idiot savant-like manner. Whenever I see a black person on television or in the movies I cringe because their presence is either trying to make a point about race or trying embarrassingly hard not to make a point. When I was young I’d always come across a Broadway play or some short story with a minor character who was a lonely, disgruntled working class black guy with an IQ of 164, and I’d immediately knew the author thought black people were stupid. I mean how many times is the movie courtroom judge a dark-skinned black woman? Don’t even get me started about the 'Matrix.' That’s why I’m glad the Hollywood liberals have discovered Latinos.

"Hokum: Something apparently impressive or legitimate but actually untrue or insincere; nonsense." With that definition in mind, why the title "Hokum?" Also tell us about some of the writing featured in this anthology.

I never know what’s sincere or what’s nonsense; I just know what’s funny, even if I have to turn my back to laugh. I chose the selections in an attempt to broaden the range of black humor beyond the folklore, yo mama, stand-up comic holy trinity. Excerpts I wanted to share because they meant a lot to me like Trey Ellis’s 'Platitudes,' Fran Ross’s 'Oreo, Malcolm X’s 'Message to the Grassroots.' Other selections are just me trying to force my tweaked sense of humor down the throat of the reader. I love listening to Mike Tyson. I got the idea to include him from Bill Simmons, an internet journalist who’s always riffing on unintentional humor, and Iron Mike is his King of Unintentional Comedy.

You have been quoted as saying "If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door." Is your work a "trap door" to the theater of race and race relations?

In the sense that all this madness is at some level illusion and stage trickery, I guess so. But I’ve seen the play so many times I’ve fallen asleep at the latch and unfortunately missed my cue to make my great escape.

Why are humor and satire -- whether it's your work, Ishmael Reed's, Richard Pryor's or David Chappelle's -- so durable and so productive when it comes to getting to truths that are often left unexamined otherwise?

They are durable because nothing ever changes. Satire has worked since the days of Aristophanes, and if one believes there’s a tradition of African theater, then I guess before that. I’m not sure what you mean by “productive.” If you mean truth telling without getting burned at the stake, I have to shrug my shoulders. What satire does is give the audience a sense of being on the inside. It’s always a good feeling to say the secret password that opens the speakeasy door, but in every 30’s gangster movie I've seen, the folks behind the speakeasy door are the privileged and the servant class entertains them.

Ever since you came out with 'The White Boy Shuffle' you've been pegged a Hip Hop Generation writer. Do you embrace that? Do you even embrace hip hop these days?

I hate any phrase that ends or starts with “Generation.” What’s most galling about the term “Hip Hop Generation” is that it’s a marketing niche passing itself off as identity. I suppose in forty years some yet unborn rapper, who’s channeling the reactionary spirit of Wynton Marsalis will be complaining about the next musical innovation. "Yo, that electronic hambonin’ is wack, yo! That harkens back to slavery when niggers couldn’t afford shit. Amplified coonery, that’s all that is. Hip hop has integrity, son."

All this hip hop proselytizing isn’t much different than the republican propaganda machine. They sell a dream and a version of inclusion to powerless and voiceless people, so they can feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves. I once saw Damon Dash say selling Pro-Keds sneakers was hip hop. If that's hip hop, thank glad I’m not.

What's your take on the mainstreaming of the spoken word scene and things like 'Def Poetry Jam?'

In these times of twenty-four hour programming on three hundred channels, I don’t think something being on TV once a month makes it mainstream. Thank goodness, I don’t have time for a bunch of poets who idolize Krispy Kreme donuts and don’t know what to do with their hands.

Two books of poetry ('Joker, Joker, Deuce,' 'Big Bank Take Little Bank'), two novels ('The White Boy Shuffle' and 'Tuff') and one anthology ('Hokum'). If you had to choose between writing prose, poetry and editing anthologies what would you pick? Can you choose?

I always thought it’d be fun and challenging to write Communist propaganda slogans. How do you think up something like, 'The commune is like a gigantic dragon, production is visibly awe-inspiring."

Here’s my best effort to date. “Black is beautiful, but Puerto Ricans have the best afros.”

What's next for Paul Beatty?

A life of dreary, thought stultifying drudgery waiting on the release of the 'Playstation 3' video game console.