the world record book of racist stories amber ruffin

To read stories you won’t soon forget, told in a totally memorable way by some very funny and generous writers, check out The World Record Book of Racist Stories.A new collection of hilarious, intergenerational anecdotes full of absurd detail about everyday experiences of racism from the New York Times bestselling authors of You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, comedian Amber Ruffin and her sister Lacey.įamilies may not always see eye to eye we get on each other’s nerves, have different perspectives and lives-especially when we consider how we've grown up in different generations. Readers do win something, though: They get unvarnished straight talk about racism from a Black family that has lived in predominantly white communities for decades. Each of these new stories is “the best” (or worst) of something-”Most Racist Bus Driver,” “Worst Reaction to a Nice Car,” “Worst Celebrity Look-Alike”-and as you’d imagine, it’s not an award you’d want to win. What’s super valuable here is reading how Ruffin and Lamar perceive these instances: how they frame them, connect them, share them with each other and, when they’re able, laugh about them.

Their stories range from lighthearted misunderstandings with racist undertones to frightening instances of unchecked bias, and everything in between. “So, it’s kinda like a dare.” In The World Record Book of Racist Stories, the other members of the Ruffin family-mom, dad, brother and two more Ruffin sisters-are brought into the fray. “People honestly thought we didn’t have more stories,” Ruffin writes in the introduction. Now Ruffin and Lamar are back, and they’ve broadened their scope. Penney or a rude doughnut maker-and the book was a huge success.

They merely offered their own perceptions of people and incidents, whether it was an overzealous security officer from J.C. (Let’s just say that Lamar’s experiences in the predominantly white city of Omaha were quite different from Ruffin’s in New York City.) They weren’t trying to persuade resistant readers about the ills of racism with their first book. You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey emerged from the phone calls, texts and stories they shared from their respective positions in New York and Nebraska. In their first book on racism, late-night talk show host Amber Ruffin and her sister Lacey Lamar primarily wrote to each other, exchanging stories in a comedy-infused back-and-forth.

The world record book of racist stories amber ruffin