Ajai Raj Balances Comedy And Social Consciousness
Ajai Raj is a stand up who feels passionately about comedy and about the protests against the grand jury decisions in the police shooting cases that happened in New York and Ferguson. He found himself in a conflict between the two which he writes about in an essay for Affect Magazine. In his article, Raj takes on the eternal question in comedy, ‘How soon is too soon to tell jokes about a controversial situation?’
Ajai Raj describes his own situation. “As a brown man with a beard, I’ve had more than one uncomfortable situation where cops (and civilians) have treated me unfairly because of my appearance. In times like these, you feel these old wounds reopen; you feel the total weight of racial injustice in this country.” His thoughts were with the protesters, but he also feels the need to keep performing as a way to deal with his pain and help others with theirs.
He added, “For my part, If I’m arrested while protesting, like several of my comedian friends have been, I hope I’ll share their optimism and bravery, and entertain my cellmates with my standup, as they’ve done.”
If Ajai Raj is going to err, he’s going to err on the side of comedy. As he puts it, “If we joke while Rome burns, it’s only so we don’t burn with it.”
