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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I'm not an American so I don't know much about this but wow this book is sad. Some of them Americans are wackos
challenging
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Painfully funny. You know how much you love it when John Oliver does those 20 minute segments on social issues that are both funny and enlightening? This book is like that, except if you’re reading it as a white person, you’re going to finish it feeling a bit less self-congratulatory.
A really quick audiobook picked up from Libby. I didn’t know anything about this book beforehand and wow— it rly made its points. It’s hilarious, uncomfortable, upsetting, and in general just pitch perfect satire/commentary “translating” white advice for Black people in America. It’s absurd that there are so many of these accessible and straightforward books on race by Black people and we STILL only teach MLK and Frederick Douglass in schools. WHY. We need to teach contemporaries along with historical figures! We need to assign modern Black reading to our white children so that they are constantly faced with the now-ness of racism and systemic oppression. This would knock a high schooler’s socks off *and* educate them. And it’s FUNNY. A really really excellent read, and a stellar narrator. Fully recommend.
funny
informative
fast-paced
Why you may not like this book: The satire doesn't let up at all. It's like a hail storm of satire and that sort of relentless tone might rub some the wrong way. You also have to be in the right headspace to take on these jokes in the middle of continued police brutality. Also, you probably won't like this if you are a racist, because he makes fun of you.
Why I liked this book: Honestly, it reached a point where I just felt so gaslit by certain reactions from friends and family following the murder of George Floyd. Having all of their arguments and "advice" lampooned by Hughley was cathartic. It helped me refocus on the truth that it is freakin' ridiculous the things white people say to Black people about how they should conduct themselves. I'm not really familiar with Hughley's work or comedy outside of this, but I laughed with a broken heart throughout How Not to Get Shot.
This covers a wide variety of topics, from when Black people get shot, to the National Anthem, to the outrageous costs of being poor. It doesn't dive deeply into any one topic, but takes lots of familiar speaking points for each and clearly, concisely and humorously takes down the most ridiculous of them. There are interludes and anecdotes in between chapters, but I enjoyed those as well. It gives the book a jumpy, almost frantic pacing, but it worked with the tone-- like a energetic, extended comedy routine.
The only bit that gave me pause came at the end when Hughley talks about the trap of comparing marginalizations, particularly between Black people and the LGBTQ+ community. He hits on an important point about how there is no "passing" with some marginalizations and what that means for the progress of equality, but he does so in language I didn't fully agree with and doesn't make allowance for intersectionality: black queer people exist.
If you need a laugh in the middle of your uprising, if you want to hear someone agree with you that the thing your racist uncle Tommy (or whatever) said really was stupid, this may just be the book for you.
I listened to the audio book version of this, read by D.L. Hughley himself, and I recommend hearing it in his own voice. it's a fairly short listen -- 3.5 hours maybe. Very funny and very good points made.
A mostly entertaining look at the common things said and done after a police shooting. Mostly, though, it made me feel a little hopeless.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced