Racial Comedy, Parrhesia, and Critical-Rhetorical Truth Telling

• In Event: Back Down Memory Lane: Explorations of Absence, Presence, and Institutionalized Public Memory

Abstract

The problem of unjust action in our racialized democracy stems in large part from limiting, narrow racial myths that inform social knowledge and truths. This essay articulates Foucault’s notion of parrhesia with critical-rhetorical education and argues that public “truth-tellers” rhetorically advocate critical truths on which the public might base actions, identities, and judgments. Specifically, democratic-minded comedy that confronts the realities of racism in U. S. culture is a rich site for such racial truth-telling.

Author

• Jonathan Rossing, Indiana University