Hominy got out of the car to untangle the snarl. Waving his arms like the crazy man he was, he separated the cars by color, not that of the respective paint jobs, but by the hue of the motorists. If you black, get back! White, to the right. Brown, go around. Yellow, follow the sites and let it mellow. Red, full speed ahead! Mulattos, full throttle! If he couldn't categorize by sight, he asked the drivers what color they were. Chicano? What color is that? You just can't make up a race, motherfucker. Puto? I got your puto right here pendejo!
In the novel "The Sellout" by Paul Beatty, Hominy engages in an outrageous and chaotic attempt to manage a traffic jam by categorizing drivers based on their race rather than their cars. His method is absurd; he assigns different actions to different racial groups. This ridiculous segregation highlights the absurdity of racial classifications and showcases Beatty's biting satire on race relations in America.
Hominy's erratic behavior escalates as he becomes increasingly confrontational, questioning the nuances of identity and the absurdity of racial labels. His comments reflect a deep cynicism about the attempts to categorize people, leading to humorous yet poignant moments that challenge the reader to consider the complexities of race and identity in society. Beatty's work cleverly critiques these racial constructs while drawing attention to the arbitrariness of such divisions.
