Book 7 You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey

 

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar fulfilled the category “Book Found on a Black Lives Matter Reading List” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. I read the book before I located a list for it. With its title and subject, I knew it would be on someone’s list. A quick Google search led me to Subterranean Books in St. Louis, MO. They had a fantastic list of BLM books, and you can purchase it right there.

My husband and I recently discovered Amber Ruffin. We are not TV watchers and get most of our videos from Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Not to mention shares from friends and families. An old friend from high school shared a few vids from Ms. Ruffin’s show and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Hubby bought the audiobook read by both Ms. Ruffin and her sister, Lacey Lamar. Well, I had to get my own copy to hear these stories. And wow, was I ignorant of the blatant racism in the US.

I’m from the East Coast and have liberal values. The Black Lives Matter Movement has opened my eyes to the reality of living in this country if you are a person of color. Through conversations with my husband, children, friends, and coworkers, I’ve learned so much about my own internal bias. I’m working hard to be a better person. I’m listening, asking questions, reading books, and watching films to help me better understand the problem and be a part of the solution.

That being said, wow, did this book open my eyes even more. Because the authors use humor to tell their stories, it makes it easier for non-POC to read and understand. I listened to the book. Ms. Ruffin narrated most of it, but Ms. Lamar checked in a few times. It made the point of the book more penetrating. Ms. Lamar faces ignorant ideas, conversations, and people every day.

Every day.

Can you imagine working, living somewhere where most of the population doesn’t see your value as a human being? I can’t. And I need to get uncomfortable with the idea that people all around me are struggling with systematic racism every single day. I need to ensure I’m not a part of it.

The book is very effective in presenting its message. The stories were entertaining with the undercut of “this really happened and it’s not so funny.” Any reader will take away much food for thought from this title. It’s a good “gateway” book if you aren’t ready to read titles such as White Fragility or So You Want to Talk about Race. (Also excellent books to get your head around the problems we have in this country.)

I give You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar Five Rounds of Applause and 5 Deep Bows for writing such an amazingly fun book about a tough topic.