How to Be Black (Enhanced Edition) [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]

This book is both funny and thoughtful. It illustrates some of the challenges of being black in America in these times, and provides a colorful portrait of the author's life as including and exemplifying those challenges to an extraordinary degree. (Attending both the Sidwell Friends prep school and a black-power revolutionary academy at the same time surely put his life on an unique double track! Working his way through Harvard on a crew of mostly-black students cleaning other students' bathrooms . . . well, he's got a surprising take on that, too.)

The author has a sardonic sense of humor that seems to soft-peddle the racial issues he touches on, but it's easy to read between the lines. (The fact that he needs to give advice on "How to Be The Black Friend" and "How to Be The Black Employee" ought to make it clear that something is up in those particular aspects of black life, even if the advice is partly tongue-in-cheek.) The inclusion of alternate perspectives from his "Advisory Board" opens up the discussions at times, and takes some of the joking edge off; this is valuable, but the author's own tone is fun to read. The overall message seems to be that it is possible to survive and thrive as a black person in America today, but that that is far from saying we're in any way a "post-racial" society, or that racism isn't very much with us. His self-help message to blacks might be summed up as "keep your sense of humor, and roll with the punches"; there are messages here for whites, too, if you can read them rightly.

One issue comes up in reading the Kindle version. The book contains many photographs, which do appear on the Kindle screen (in the Kindle online reader, some appear in color, which is a plus). But the Kindle version also includes frequent large symbols saying "TAP Here", supposedly leading to extended online content special to the Kindle. On the B&W Kindle, clicking there with the cursor has no effect. The "extended content" is not available. Turning wireless on doesn't seem to help. It's not that big a deal - checking in the computer-based Kindle reader app, the symbols just open a page that contains Tweets from Thurston's Twitter feed, mostly quotes from the book. So you haven't really missed anything - you've already read the quotes! But it's annoying that the "Kindle enhanced edition" - which is touted on the Amazon page and in the book itself - doesn't actually do anything. I was going to take a star off the rating for this lack, but it's such a minor part of the book that you can overlook it.

As for the actual content, it's great. An amusing light read that will give you something to think about. In some ways reminiscent of Tanehisi Coates's "The Beautiful Struggle", but not exclusively autobiographical, and a bit less heavy going. Recommended for Black Friends, White Friends Who Think They Have Black Friends, Whites Who Never Noticed They Don't Have Black Friends, and everyone else.

This book had me dying laughing from page 1! The first quote of the book pretty much sets the tone. I thought this book would be more conversational and maybe more on a somber note, however this is seriously one of the funniest books i have ever read. The reason why it is so funny? But it is all true! Everything is pretty much spot on. From the author explaining that this book will not make you black, to being the black friend, I truly enjoyed it. I pretty much finished the book in a matter of hours because I just could not put it down. I does give some insight to how black people see and react to the world given very common situations. I really do hate when people touch my hair.

Highly recommended, especially if you have an open mind and love to laugh at life.

Being black male growing up in a white neighborhood all my life I related to every page. I recommend this book not only to black people but also white people who are interested in gaining insight and open their world view.