Blaženka Juren

Questions of race in American literature and popular culture

2018/4th semester

Reaction paper

„HOW TO BE BLACK“ BY BARATUNDE THURSTON

23rd May, 2018

1. SUMMARY OF THE WORK

In his book „How to be black“, stand-up comedian Baratunde Thurston gives advices about

how to act like a black person, but in satyrical manner. It's purpose is actually to present mass

media and society in general as extremely racist. Thurston does this by narrating his own life,

from childhood to the present exposing his experiences and daily struggles of being black in

today's world. However, it is not written in serious tone, by contrary, he brings in the reader

the sense of irony, sarcasm and pure humour. The book is divided into smaller parts which

refer to various topics or points of his life where he states some rules on how to be black

friend, a black employer, etc. Furthermore, there are several comical explanations of the roles

a black individual has to play in American society and they are presented in such manner that

it will cause solely laugh. Apart from book being accumulated with hilarious advice, it is also

description about his experiences in Sidwell Friends and Harvard University, and also about

his childhood story when he lived in Washington D.C. In order to be understood more clearly,

Thurston congregates “The Black Panel” which consists of artists and stand-up comedians

who discuss about race in their profession. Questions included in this panel indicate when

these people first realized their “blackness” (most were children), if there was a time they

wanted not to be black (almost no one) and their thoughts upon the concept of “post-racial

America”.

Regarding the historical context the period of Thurston’s childhood which was mainly

described was happening during 1980s. It was the time when the African-American

population became exceedingly urbanized (Great Migration). Moreover, Washington D.C.

suburbs had signs of black history and culture. By 1975 more than 70 percent of population of

that city was black. It flourished with The Black Arts, Black Power, variety of genres of

music such as jazz, blues and go-go which is described as DC’s version of funk). This is

connected to Thurston’s mother who was black activist and made him participate in Ankobia
program in D.C. run by Pan-African black American activists. Unfortunately, these suburbs

were well known for daily shootings and drug dealing (“I was a little black boy living in a war

zone.”). That’s how Thurston’s father died; he was involved in drug-dealing business. This

text shows how does that “post-racial America” concept really work. But after all, this is

important for creating of the book because this certain period of his life made him aware that

accepting and being proud of your blackness is the best thing to do.

The writer first begins with general “tips” on how to be black, and then he explains the origin

of his name and how it affects Nigerian people. He also shares some comical stories about the

time several people became aware that they are black. Then he talks about his grandmother

and his mother, how his mother had a huge influence on him on becoming a black activist.

His mother also isolated him from joining the drug dealing business and assured him a normal

childhood (“I was a bass- playing, tofu-eating, weekend-camping, karate-chopping, apartheid-

hating, top- grade-getting, generally trouble-avoiding agent of blackness.”). He also talks

about the level of blackness others have, i.e. how much they are black. This is also connected

with the term “Oreo cookie” which meant that the person is black on the outside, but white on

the inside. He mentioned the relationship with his father and the memories he could remember

(his father was killed when he was six). In the next chapter, he remembers his days spent in

Aknobia, which purpose was to teach him about black history and more importantly, how to

defend himself from the violent surroundings he lived in. Furthermore, there are “tips” how to

be black friend which actually presents how white people perceive their black friend in some

stereotypical way including abilities such as good sense of humour, rapping, dancing etc. This

black friend has also an important role, to be spokesman of all black people out there in

situations when the white starts “shooting” their controversial questions. The question of

“wishing not to be black” is also put in question. Then Thurston alludes to general stereotypes

or even microaggressions he experienced, such as, people thinking he can’t swim, he would
be a great soldier because “black people are violent”, etc. He also points out the tips of how to

be a black employee and how to survive daily “struggles” with your colleagues. In addition,

there are tips on how to be the next black president, accompanied with satire. The book ends

with more serious conclusion, like the writer wants to say that even though the content of the

book is hilarious, in the end we’ve become aware what is going on, and to deal with this

problem is to accept yourself who you are.

2. MY REACTION TO THE WORK

There are several racial issues being discussed in this book, however not so explicitly. This

book hides variety of different meanings in its comical content. The main ones are certainly

double consciousness, identity, representation and docile bodies. The issue of double

consciousness is present almost in every chapter, especially when the author describes how he

spent week days in Sidwell Friends School among wealthy, white children and his weekends

were spent in, how he calls it: “a Hebrew School or Bar Mitzvah for Blackness Friends”. This

is also linked to judging the identity - “Then you take someone like me that would go to

Sidwell by day and then go back to my neighbourhood and the black kids there, and their

judgment of someone like me who goes off to the fancy private school. Initially, it was like:

'Oh, you go to that white school.” 'His name was also a problem for his identity, causing

confusion among black people. Furthermore, it is connected to the topic of how to be a black

employee, when there are situations black person has to suppress his “blackness” from others

seeing it, for example, doesn’t draw attention to the way you dance or don’t eat watermelons

(black people were known for selling watermelons after the slavery). Another important issue

are stereotypes and breaking from them.

Setting in the book (Washington D.C., Senegal in Africa) is very important feature of the

book because as mentioned before, Washington D.C. was a residence of numerous black
people and a lot of black culture developed there. It is also a city full of controversy about

black suburbs as they were known for violence, crime and drugs on the streets. A trip to

Senegal, his “motherland” was ironically described, as Thurston was disappointed when he

realized that it was “populated by fat, naked Germans”. On the other side, he was excited to

see where his roots are.

The strength of this book is that it is composed out of merely autobiographical memory so

readers find it interesting and reliable because it is based on someone’s experience. The

superb thing is that it is written in a way that makes reader laugh; he describes some events in

ironic and cynical way. In other words, it is not another book about racism, written in serious

and cold tone and hoarded with facts. On the other hand, the only weakness of this text is that

in the chapter “How to speak for all black people”, Thurston assumes that one black

individual can speak in the name of the whole black race, together with presumption that a

black individual can solely speak for the black experience.

There is a close relation of the work with the contemporary world because there are lot of

elements described which happened in the recent past. For example, the chapter “How to be

an angry negro” says a lot of present situation. In one way, white people think that the black

are full of rage when they are not smiling, while in other way, black people get offended by

every word or question and think it is jeopardizing them against their blackness.

Unfortunately, almost every problem discussed in this text can be drawn to the present time,

mainly microaggressions, like simply touching black person’s hair, calling them “my brotha”,

and that one case which I could name: ranting on black people, “daring to be present”. It

happened when Thurston was studying on Harvard and he was doing his part time job as a

waiter and one man accused him of lying and then he described his feelings

“but in that moment, I felt extraordinarily black and angry and embarrassed.”. This depicts the

main problem in society, black people are unable to accept their blackness and perceive it as
something unique because of actions of ignorant people who express their hatred in every

possible way.

I found this book inspiring and easy to read and the thing I liked about it is something that this

book is famous for: humoristic content. I think it automatically becomes approachable to

everyone to read it and understand it, as well. The most parts I enjoyed were memoirs. In

addition, big part of the book is intensely personal but it is used to promote his theory: there is

variety of ways how to form your own black identity but also to depict his side of

experiencing blackness. On the other hand, I found some situations quite sad, because, after

all, this humour hides one shade of irony. I assume that Thurston wanted it this way, to make

the reader aware how big the problem is. What affected me the most were situations when

people became aware they were black, they were children and didn’t quite understand why

they should be different from others. I recognized the struggle of being black in White

America and how black people are being served with discrimination every day. I can relate

with this book when it comes to microaggressions because everyone who is slightly different

from others experiences that. What I also liked about this book is that even though most of

racial issues are quite serious, the tone of the whole text is hopeful. It calls for all those black

people just to be themselves, to embrace their blackness.

This assigned work covers a wide range of themes discussed in the course. I explained before

that double consciousness is briefly talked about, as the author is stretched between white and

black world. Identity is also analysed, especially at the end of the book when the writer says

that black identity indeed represents America - “This country is our home, and we helped

build it both physically and morally. The struggle of black people in America, therefore, is the

struggle of America itself”. Furthermore, this whole book is here to prove how immensely

racial identity is stereotyped and more important, how the author is the one who succeed to

break from all those stereotypes. What is mostly emphasized is that black people shouldn’t
see their blackness as something unwanted, and having such a negative view on black history

is affecting the self-worth and other people’s perception of you. He also mentions docile

bodies (not explicitly), saying that black bodies were the physical strength for providing all

those goals and ideals of the white. In other words, black body is responsible for providing the

American Dream.

3. CONCLUSION

To summarize given, this book gives a detailed explanation of experiencing blackness. By

blending it with humour, it actually presents the hard, cold truth about racial issues then and

now. Except for its memoir part, this guidebook reveals biggest stereotypes of black people

by presenting advices on “how to be a black friend”, “how to be the (next) black president”,

etc. Beyond memoir, this guidebook offers practical advice on everything from "How to Be

The Black Friend" to "How to Be The (Next) Black President" to "How to Celebrate Black

History Month." The writer didn’t just share his experience of being black but he also

interviewed other black people to make his point stronger and in the same time provided a

good laugh to his readers. Furthermore, I acknowledged these main points by reading this

book: 1. best way of succeeding is being yourself 2. Black people should accept their

blackness and need to love themselves more 3. Black people shouldn’t let stereotypes shape

their identity. I think that the most salient thing is author’s showing that you can define your

own blackness without letting stereotypes affect you.