by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
This one is hard to write about. It's a series of stories about all the racist crap that the author's sister Lacey has had to deal with over her life--so far. The author is a comedy writer and former (maybe still) improv performer, and she's a total hoot. And the narration, which includes both the author and her sister, is wonderfully funny and upbeat.
Which it has to be. It is impossible for a pair of human beings--and their family and friends--to deal with so much unnecessary sh**t without learning to laugh about it...even if the laughter is coming through gritted teeth sometimes.
Thus my conflicted review. As a white person, I find it hard to laugh about this stuff. Any of it. Especially when it happens to children. It Just. Should. Not. Happen.
I found myself smiling sometimes, but only because of the jokes the narrators themselves made and the interplay between them. They're a pair of very funny ladies and I wish I could have enjoyed this as it was meant to be enjoyed. For example, when she talks about being a teenager being yelled at by a police office and she jokes about how she truly thought her life was coming to an end...well...I wanted to laugh. We've all been stupid teenagers and all thought we were going to be in super big trouble for doing stupid things. Except...only...in Ms. Ruffin's case, it was not just some made up stuff in a silly girl's head--in her case, she really could have been shot. "By accident," as in, "I feared for my life from this 17-year-old girl crying her eyes out because she'd been stopped on the road."
It's mostly just too real to be laughed at. And that's a real shame. I wonder if she's writing any other books?
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