I have tried to read this book a few times. I first picked it up a few years ago and got about a third of the way through it. Then earlier this year I tried again, and got only a tiny bit further. I enjoyed it both times, but there was something about it that I found… oddly unsettling.
I finally got the audiobook read by the author (with interviews from some of his friends and colleagues read by them). Thurston is a highly entertaining orator. His reading of this book also provides it with the intonations he intended. I have a hard time categorizing this book. It is about a serious topic – how navigating the world is different depending on the colour of your skin, and how having dark skin means you have to learn twice as many rules and behave in different ways in different settings. This book is all about those social nuances and the results for dealing with situations in different ways. But it’s also comedic, and also autobiographical.
As much as I enjoyed that this book imparts an invaluable view of what it means to be Black in America in the modern age, as I said earlier in this review, there is something about this book that unsettled me. I finally realized upon listening to it that it’s the very fact that these serious topics are presented comedically. It’s not that I have a problem with comedy. It’s more that the amount of effort that went into making these excruciating details of life as a Black American funny and therefore not too serious, presumably to therefore be more appealing to White audiences, is an example of the extra effort society demands from Black people in order for them to be heard. Now, Thurston does this consciously and willingly, and it could even be said he does it precisely to show how much effort Black people have to put into every social interaction they have. But for me, though I could laugh in places, it also broke my heart.
This book is one I think will hit different readers in different ways. Some will find it funny. Others will find it informative and it will shift their view of race in the world around them. Some, like me, will find it difficult to take at times. But perhaps that is one of the things it has going for it – it is wide open to any reaction you might have while reading. You’re allowed to laugh. You’re allowed to get angry. You’re allowed to learn. You’re allowed to cry. Because for every funny moment in this book, there is another that is poignant and yet another that is infuriating. Of all the books I’ve read that deal with race, this one is, so far, the hardest to pin down. Which is precisely why I think you should definitely read it. Then come back and tell me what you thought. I’d also highly recommend the audiobook – not only is Thurston an excellent narrator, but the interviews are actual interviews, and that adds an extra element that I really enjoyed. I’m really glad I finally stuck with this to the end. It was well worth it, and I expect to return to it several more times in my life.
Baratunde Thurston’s comedic memoir chronicles his coming-of-blackness and offers practical advice on everything from “How to Be the Black Friend” to “How to Be the (Next) Black President”—now available in a limited Olive Edition.
Have you ever been called “too black” or “not black enough”?
Have you ever befriended or worked with a black person?
Have you ever heard of black people?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book is for you. It is also for anyone who can read, possesses intelligence, loves to laugh, and has ever felt a distance between who they know themselves to be and what the world expects.
Raised by a pro-black, Pan-Afrikan single mother during the crack years of 1980s Washington, DC, and educated at Sidwell Friends School and Harvard University, Baratunde Thurston has more than over thirty years’ experience being black. Now, through stories of his politically inspired Nigerian name, the heroics of his hippie mother, the murder of his drug-abusing father, and other revelatory black details, he shares with readers of all colors his wisdom and expertise in how to be black. – Goodreads
Book Title: How To Be Black
Author: Baratunde Thurston
Series: No
Edition: Paperback/Audiobook
Published By: Harper Perennial/Audible
Released: January 31, 2012
Genre: Memoir, Comedy, Race, Social Commentary
Pages: 272
Date Read: August 4-5, 2020
Rating: 8/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.92/5 (7,395 ratings)
