You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism

$20.98

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism
  • Ruffin, Amber; Lamar, Lacey
  • 2021 | Hardcover

9781538719367 / 1538719363

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SKU: 9781538719367 Category:

New Book

*An Indie Next Pick*

Writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers Amber Ruffin writes with her sister Lacey Lamar with humor and heart to share absurd anecdotes about everyday experiences of racism.

Now a writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and host of The Amber Ruffin Show, Amber Ruffin lives in New York, where she is no one’s First Black Friend and everyone is, as she puts it, “stark raving normal.” But Amber’s sister Lacey? She’s still living in their home state of Nebraska, and trust us, you’ll never believe what happened to Lacey.

From racist donut shops to strangers putting their whole hand in her hair, from being mistaken for a prostitute to being mistaken for Harriet Tubman, Lacey is a lightning rod for hilariously ridiculous yet all-too-real anecdotes. She’s the perfect mix of polite, beautiful, petite, and Black that apparently makes people think “I can say whatever I want to this woman.” And now, Amber and Lacey share these entertainingly horrifying stories through their laugh-out-loud sisterly banter. Painfully relatable or shockingly eye-opening (depending on how often you have personally been followed by security at department stores), this book tackles modern-day racism with the perfect balance of levity and gravity.

Reviews

“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)

 

“Featuring the authors’ razor-sharp wit and limitless brilliance, these true tales of injustice are a gift to readers.”

— Booklist (starred review)

 

“Both maddening and funny, an eye-opening look at how its daily targets cope with racism.”

— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

 

“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

 

“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

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