Review of "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
It's the middle of the protests following George Floyd's murder. I'm seeing book titles on Twitter that white people should read. John Amaechi retweets a pic of four books, so I screenshot it. White Fragility. Between the World and Me. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting in the Cafeteria?. Natives. I get on Amazon, buy some, but some are sold out. I go to my local Barnes and Noble. Sold out as well. I see this book on a table next to Just Mercy. Looks interesting. Informative. So I pick it up. I know I'll be scolded. I know I'll read things I won't want to hear. Things that will make me shift in my seat a little and silently protest, "C'mon, man! It's not ALL of us!" I can't really claim to believe that Black Lives Matter, though, unless I listen. Hear hard …
It's the middle of the protests following George Floyd's murder. I'm seeing book titles on Twitter that white people should read. John Amaechi retweets a pic of four books, so I screenshot it. White Fragility. Between the World and Me. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting in the Cafeteria?. Natives. I get on Amazon, buy some, but some are sold out. I go to my local Barnes and Noble. Sold out as well. I see this book on a table next to Just Mercy. Looks interesting. Informative. So I pick it up. I know I'll be scolded. I know I'll read things I won't want to hear. Things that will make me shift in my seat a little and silently protest, "C'mon, man! It's not ALL of us!" I can't really claim to believe that Black Lives Matter, though, unless I listen. Hear hard truths. Challenge my complacency and biases. I get home, take a deep, square my shoulders, and start reading.
In minutes, I'm laughing. Out loud. The way only Bill Bryson or David Sedaris makes me laugh. Shoulders bouncing, bed shaking, my wife rolling her eyes and about to tell me to settle down. And it's funny because it's so relatable. Some settings have changed, and some details differ, but the experiences he's sharing are so human. Basketball and friendships and family and anxieties and girls and figuring out what it means to be a man. Funny. Raw. Entertaining.
I continue reading, and the laughs slow down. He's sharing things I can't relate to. Things I want to protest can't be true, but how would I know? Until now, we've been two guys sharing laughs and a beer. Now he's talking about things that divide us. The negative effects of gentrification. Why black people can say the n-word and white people can't, even when singing along to the same music. Why Trump's election devastated the black community. Why black people need spaces safe from whites. What it means to raise a black child in America. My shoulders slump. I suppress my thought that "It's not all of us," realizing how lame it sounds. I'm getting my scolding. But I'm listening. I'm learning. And I'm definitely going to read more of what Damon Young writes.
P.S. To set the record straight, I voted against Trump in 2016, and will vote against him again in 2020. For what it's worth.
