Events › The Souls of White Jokes: Book Talk with Dr. Raúl Pérez | Virtual event on Zoom

This program is part of Albany Reads.

Author Raúl Pérez will discuss his book, The Souls of White Jokes which provides an in depth look at the use of racist humor to perpetuate racism and White Supremacy. Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois famous essay, “The Souls of White Folk,” Raul Pérez engages in the difficult and important exploration of the role of humor in the persistence and pervasiveness of racism and white supremacy in America.

Raúl Pérez is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of La Verne, and previously an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver. His first book, The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy, published by Stanford University Press in 2022, was a Finalist for the 2022 C. Wright Mills Book Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and he received the 2023 Mary Douglas Book Prize from the American Sociological Association’s Section on the Sociology of Culture. His work has also been featured in various media, such as The Washington Post, TIME, and NBC.


Made possible by generous support from the Friends of the Albany Library.

We care about your privacy. We use Zoom for our virtual programs. This program will not be recorded and the chat log will not be saved. You will receive a link for the meeting about 24 hours before the event.

An ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter or closed captioning can be provided for this program if requested at least three business days in advance. For assistance, please contact your library or accessibility@aclibrary.org.