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

5.0

I am loving this book so far. If nothing else, the conversations, smirks, giggles, and very confused looks I've gotten while reading this book in public have been great. Having an older African American woman point at the book, smirk and say "Good luck with that!" was a highlight of my week. And then just a few days later an older African American gentleman went on a rant to me about "in his day" black people were trying to be white and now there were too many white folks trying to act black, but you have to be born black, you can't become black. And when I explained that it was humorous social commentary intended to discuss subtle or latent racism, he scoffed even louder and told me "of course y'all take that from a funny black guy, if he was angry y'all would ignore him and run away from him." I agreed that he was likely right, but he continued to rant in a very hilarious way about how white people have incredibly bizarre impressions of race and how he just doesn't get "you people". But if you are an even mildly-aware white person I highly recommend this book just to read the occasional line that will make your eyes go wide and you'll think "Oh my GAWD! I think I've done that before!" It's all about persepective, and Baratunde creates a great chance to address this persepctive.