A review by novemah
How to Be Black by Baratunde R. Thurston

4.0

I grew up in Asia and moved to the U.S. over a decade ago, and I could relate to a lot of the book. When you're a minority, it's easy to find yourself in a situation where you're the only representative of your race/ethnicity in a given place/space, and there's a certain type of anxiety, stress, and even anger that comes from having to be constantly self-conscious about every action you take and every word you say and how that may be (over)extrapolated. Thurston does a great job of capturing those feelings (and more) with humor and optimism. I really enjoyed his stories of growing up while straddling two different worlds and other little tidbits too, like his discovery of CNN International while he was in Senegal on a high school trip. (For me, it was the reverse -- I was disappointed to find that CNN in the U.S. was more similar to the E! Network than an actual news channel.) He also uses "doth protest too much" correctly, which I love because it's a huge pet peeve of mine when people misuse that phrase. Overall, a quick and enjoyable read.