Uhh Day 7 (?): Texas, the drive and the show

I left New Mexico with high spirits. Things were going well and I was getting a nice little streak going with interviews. Next stop: Fort Worth, Texas.

Though I know it is necessary to keep an open mind throughout this experience, I was wary about this next stint of my trip, especially Texas. Though I've never spent much time in the South, I knew that caution was of high concern, and my fears were not alleviated whatsoever when a friend of mine, who is born and raised in Texas, warned me of staying out late due to a recent spike in hate crimes.

Regardless, I pushed these thoughts aside and embarked on this next leg. We made our first stop in Claude, Texas, near the border with New Mexico and a pretty rural place. We got gas and stopped for food but it felt like a very uninviting place. We did not see a single person of color, and even my father detected slight hostility from one of the workers there (there could have been a number of reasons for this behavior, but that does not make it any better). I do not want to give the sense that we were in imminent danger, but my intuition was telling me that the sooner we got out of there, the better.

(Horses!)

After that minor tense moment we were back on the road. We made one more stop for gas before arriving at our hotel at around 7:56pm.

But we had to go to a comedy show at 8pm.

So we just pulled out of the parking spot we had just pulled in to. After a confused search for parking in Downtown Fort Worth, we saw a show by a comedian named Sledge (sadly could not find his name) at Hyena's Comedy Nightclub.

               This is when I learned another something about comedy. People like hearing jokes about themselves, but mostly if it is from someone that identifies with them. The comedian was a native of Texas, so he made a number of jokes about "rednecks" and "being from the country", at one point he even said "we all know a guy like that." And I think a part of this is a sense of pride that only allows itself to be taken in jest by one that belongs to the same group as them, because then it is more like to just be a humorous, astute observation instead of an baseless attack with malicious intent.

It seems like there may also be a sense of elitism within this style of comedy. There was not a single political joke made, which was a good move on behalf of the comedian, knowing that he is in a Trump voting state. But on the point of elitism, people are going to be up in arms if someone that they view to be socially inferior or below them detracts from their status through comedy. It disrupts the social order, which explains a likelihood to only be willing to accept  jokes about a community from one who actually belongs to it.

I am just postulating, but these trends do not just belong to this community of people in the country. As a Black person, I am exponentially more likely to find a joke about Black people funny if it is told by a Black person, and especially if it is a joke derived from a true story of theirs. Because then it is relatable. There is not the same idea of elitism as I had mentioned before, but rather protectionism against outsiders to the community that poke fun at it without having to live through the struggles of being a member. Almost as though being a member of these particular communities is a prerequisite or right of passage to have a substantial joke about the community that, once again, might really say something worthwhile.