This was a book that I stumbled on somewhere within the house since my partner had a copy. What with all the free time I had while recovering from surgery, I decided that I would pick it up.
The book is a series of essays roughly surrounding being a Black woman in the entertainment industry. Robinson covers many things from her hair (in the title) to her guilty pleasures. It ends, really touchingly, with letters to her recently born niece about being a mixed race woman in the world.
Now I’ve read a bunch of books that, broadly, speak about race and this one is definitely the funniest that I’ve read so far. Robinson is a comedian, and damn, she is good at her job! The book is sprinkled with jokes and pop culture references. (Keep in mind that the book was written in 2016 so some of the references are dated.) And should you think that the jokes are a bit too far, she even has an essay on the trope of the “angry, Black woman” and how that often makes her feel as though she has to cut any criticisms she has with humor.
More broadly than that though, as someone in the entertainment industry she brings up issues that I hadn’t heard of before. Or issues that I knew existed, but I didn’t know the specifics, such as casting calls that weren’t written by people of color. Sure, I can imagine that would be an issue, but I don’t frequently see casting calls so I couldn’t tell you how they are discriminatory and poorly written.
Anyways this is a hilarious and entertaining book. Even if
you don’t pick it up wanting to learn about race and racism in America, you
will likely still have a good time reading it. And hopefully, learn a thing or
two!
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