FEBRUARY 2021 - AudioFile
Comedian Amber Ruffin (“The Amber Ruffin Show”) and Lacey Lamar are sisters and co-narrators of this hilarious romp through a series of unfortunate encounters with the racially ignorant. They take turns narrating their no-holds-barred commentary on the incidents that happen to Lacey, a Black woman, in homogenous white Nebraska. Ruffin and Lamar are upbeat as they share their sharp wit, which helps to buffer the underlying racism in each account. The audiobook peels back the layers of how often and how absurdly poorly Lacey is treated, and it’s both infuriating and laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes all within the same moment. Don’t miss this engaging and educational listen. M.R. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 01/11/2021
Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Ruffin and her sister, Lamar, recount the racism Lamar has experienced growing up and living in Omaha, Neb., expertly balancing laugh-out-loud humor and descriptions of deplorable actions. The authors chronicle the “constant flow of racism one must endure to live in the Midwest,” with stories of Lamar getting consistently followed by security at JC Penney as a child, being publicly humiliated by a teacher who made her move to the back of the classroom, getting fired for calling out racist mistreatment from her boss, and being mistaken for Whoopi Goldberg and Harriet Tubman. While the writing is consistently funny, the severity of the racism is never downplayed; Ruffin and Lamar show the necessity of embracing humor as a coping mechanism. As Ruffin states at the book’s close, “This is not every experience and it is not a lifetime’s worth of stories. And, with that said, isn’t it waaaay more than you expected?” This is an excellently executed account, rich with vivid insight. Agent: Anthony Mattero, CAA. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
"The book is a portrait of one person’s struggle to maintain dignity, strength and self-respect when faced with injustices small and large—all told with Ruffin’s irreverent, sardonic style."—People
“This timely and timeless book is hilarious, insightful, aggravating and comforting in equal measure.”—Salon
"I dare you to read this hilarious and eye-opening book and not become obsessed with Amber Ruffin."—Mindy Kaling
"If you laugh half as hard as I did at the FIRST story in this book, let alone the rest of the book, you will have gotten your money's worth. The stories made me laugh and they made me sad. I know I'm not the only one to experience these kinds of moments but it helps to know that someone else-poor little Black Lacey taking on the lion's share of Nebraska's white ignorance all by her lonesome- experiences it too. From the mental gymnastics needed to call a black store dirty then drive out of state in order to avoid said dirt only to wind up shopping in a sty operating in a white neighborhood to having the gall to try and holluh at black women on a dating app when your profile pics have the confederate flag in them, Amber & Lacey point out how white folks are apparently doing the most in them parts."—Retta, comedian and actress (Parks & Recreation, Good Girls)
"The message of this book is for ALL of us and no matter why YOU'RE here — perhaps you're a fan of Amber Ruffin's comedy, or a Seth Meyers' fan, or a personal friend of Lacey's, or maybe you're just a person browsing for a book that will help you understand the Black experience in America and the other ones seem too much like school — I urge you to BUY THIS BOOK. The stories are delivered with the humor and horror they deserve. You will laugh, you will be enraged, and if you are a white person, you will understand more than you did before about the truth of being Black in America — even if you thought you understood a lot already because you read the hard school books."—Busy Philipps, author, actor, white lady
"Amber and Lacey have the gift of making you comfortable enough to laugh at events that will also make you cringe. This book is an opportunity for black people to know you're not alone in how you've experienced the world. And for everyone this book is a chance to see a layer of this world that you might have been blind to. You'll leave both with a laugh and a little more knowledge."—Roy Wood, Jr., correspondent, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
"Amber and Lacey hysterically walk us through a minefield of empirically traumatizing events, finding a way to make us laugh while weeping for the state of our nation; a place where two brilliant women are made to feel that somehow it is they who are missing the mark."—Natasha Lyonne, quadruplethreat, noted surrealist
"Both maddening and funny, an eye-opening look at how its daily targets cope with racism."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A must-read that will have Black women feeling seen and heard, and will allow others to better understand the effects of racism. With YA crossover appeal, this is also an excellent choice for book clubs."—Library Journal (starred review)
“Featuring the authors' razor-sharp wit and limitless brilliance, these true tales of injustice are a gift to readers.”—Booklist (starred review)
"Expertly balancing laugh-out-loud humor and descriptions of deplorable actions...While the writing is consistently funny, the severity of the racism is never downplayed; Ruffin and Lamar show the necessity of embracing humor as a coping mechanism...This is an excellently executed account, rich with vivid insight."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Library Journal
★ 08/01/2021
Sisters Ruffin and Lamar compare their personal and professional lives in a funny, vivid account that unpacks the realities of coping with constant racism.
FEBRUARY 2021 - AudioFile
Comedian Amber Ruffin (“The Amber Ruffin Show”) and Lacey Lamar are sisters and co-narrators of this hilarious romp through a series of unfortunate encounters with the racially ignorant. They take turns narrating their no-holds-barred commentary on the incidents that happen to Lacey, a Black woman, in homogenous white Nebraska. Ruffin and Lamar are upbeat as they share their sharp wit, which helps to buffer the underlying racism in each account. The audiobook peels back the layers of how often and how absurdly poorly Lacey is treated, and it’s both infuriating and laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes all within the same moment. Don’t miss this engaging and educational listen. M.R. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-11-03
Comedy writer Ruffin recounts the endless indignities involved in being a Black woman in America, with her older sister as foil.
The Ruffin sisters grew up with a mother who “has a bad case of the smarts…and…isn’t fond of people messing with her children”—messing that comes daily from the White residents of Omaha, Nebraska, a city, Ruffin reminds us, that may sound like Hicksville, USA, but is larger than New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis. Those White citizens think nothing of using the N-word, nor of touching Black women’s hair, nor of assuming that the Black residents of Omaha are violent and thievish. The latter assumptions build in ways that the sisters find sometimes amusing, sometimes hurtful, always astonishingly awful. Lamar—who remained in Omaha while Ruffin moved to New York, where she writes for Late Night With Seth Meyers—recounts a trip to a store when a friend asked about the cost of a Rolex on display. Told “expensive,” her friend replied, “Bitch, I’ll take two.” Lamar got the same response when she asked about a coffee table and then was floored when the manager informed her of the hardly shattering price tag of $200. Some indignities are nearly inexplicable: One man tried an online come-on with a Confederate flag as backdrop; an elementary school teacher attributed slavery to keeping-up-with-the-Joneses peer pressure. “The reaction always varies because you can only put up with what you can put up with when you can put up with it,” writes Ruffin. “And here’s a little reminder that we shouldn’t have to put up with this shit AT ALL!” Most of the time, the sisters’ reactions are a kind of knowing exasperation. “We are not into trying to educate white America, but maybe we accidentally did,” they conclude. The education is no accident, and White readers can certainly use the wake-up call.
Both maddening and funny, an eye-opening look at how its daily targets cope with racism.
