By Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar.
You've probably heard of performer/TV writer/TV talk show host Amber Ruffin, who I am a big fan of. I presume you haven't heard of her sister Lacey (who as far as I can tell works at old folks' homes(?)/health care industry in Omaha, Nebraska) unless you watch The Amber Ruffin Show, which you really should. Their family is from Omaha. Amber left to go pursue a performing career and these days has less crazy ass awful racist encounters at say, her job, which is lovely. Lacey, on the other hand, keeps running into crazy racist shit all the time in Nebraska, particularly at her jobs, which it sounds like she frequently leaves or gets fired from even though she tries to put up with the BS so she can get money. These kinds of stories get told on the show, but here's a longer list. The two sisters write the book together in different typefaces depending on who wrote what, but mostly this is Amber recounting what Lacey told her and Lacey interjecting periodically. There's also some good explanatory photos at times, such as ridiculous things people have said about Lacey's hair and the time she got a makeover with totally wrong foundation.
I will sadly not be able to recount which ones specifically stand out since my Kindle bookmarking went kind of wonky while reading this (sigh), but it's exactly what it says on the tin. Stuff where you're like "Geeez, REALLY?!" Especially the work stories. Especially the guy at JC Penney's who keeps insisting that Lacey is stealing even when she's just waiting for her boyfriend outside of the bathroom. Especially stuff involving cops (a big one on the show), People are ridiculous bad and I feel so bad that Lacey and Amber keep having to put up with this shit. I rather like their mom, she sounds badass, but even the parents got harassed out of running a successful daycare because of racism. Just...god, people, could you stop acting like that?
Much like on the show, Amber has a knack of talking about angry depressing shit in an entertaining way, so that sort of style continues in this book. There's also discussion as to how to handle each individual situation--when do you keep your mouth shut vs. when do you speak up and what happens when you do.
I feel like I'm writing this pretty inadequately, somehow, so here's some other reviews that are doing it better than I am today. I will quote from this one in particular:
I’m making this funny, anecdotal book sound like an exhausting rant, and it is not at all a rant – even though the anecdotes I’ve listed above are far from the most mortifying recounted in the book. Constructed somewhat as a dialogue – different fonts for each sister – the tales are delivered almost entirely in a sardonic, world-weary, sisterly eye-rolling style followed by shrugs: Who’s gonna believe that white people can be so crazy?
Black people will, undoubtedly, although they hardly need this book to be persuaded. And the white people most in need of it – from Omaha to Orlando – are never going to pick it up, let alone read it. But if you are somewhere in that middle ground — wondering, could it really be that bad? – you need to read this book.
Indeed, in our current cultural climate, it’s a fairly mild rather than lacerating book on this subject. Ruffin notes that in these particular personal stories, “No one gets hurt. No one dies. Not in this book. This book is not about those things. This book is about the stories you’re expected to swallow and forget. … [And] Lacey is a magnet for this behavior because she’s small and nice and cute. …
“When you hear these stories and think, None of these stories are okay, you are right. And when you hear these stories and think, Dang, that’s hilarious, you are right. They’re both.” It’s a comedian’s book full of crazy stories that are not okay.
Four stars from me.
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