As a writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Myers, Amber Ruffin has long entertained fans with her hilarious sketches and check-ins with her sister Lacey, who lives in Nebraska. In her first book, Amber details the everyday racism they both face, from the subtle to the outrageous.
*A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND 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.
Amber Ruffin is a writer and cast member on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers. She also amazingly became the first black woman to write for a late-night talk show in American history when she joined the staff in 2014, and was a writer/sometimes performer on HBO's Black Lady Sketch Show. She is about to launch her own late night show, The Amber Ruffin Show which will anchor the new NBC streaming service, Peacock.
Lacey Lamar is Amber Ruffin's big sister. She has worked in the healthcare and human service field for more than twenty-five years, thirteen of those working with troubled youth in her community. She volunteers her time and resources to black, brown refugee and indigenous fellow humans in any way she can. Lacey lives in Nebraska with her unbelievable amazing daughter Imani and their 130lb Great Dane Izzy.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Why? Why Would a Person Do This? xv
About the Authors xix
Intro xxi
I Got a Million of 'Em 1
I Find This Hard to Believe 36
Is This a Joke? 71
I Do Not Care for These Stories 113
Let's Take a Break and Have Some More Silly Stories 136
White Church: The Worst Place on Earth 158
Amber Ruins the Book 168
I Want to Put This Book Down and Run Away from It 179
There's Nothing I Can Say to You to Make You Believe These Stories, but Here They Are Anyway 194
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