{"product_id":"sure-ill-be-your-black-friend-notes-from-the-other-side-of-the-fist-bump","title":"Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend: Notes from the Other Side of the Fist Bump","description":"It is a truth\nuniversally acknowledged that a good white person of liberal leanings must be\nin want of a Black friend.\n\nIn the biting, hilarious vein of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life comes Ben Philippe’s candid memoir-in-essays, chronicling a lifetime of being the Black friend (see also: foreign kid, boyfriend, coworker, student, teacher, roommate, enemy) in predominantly white spaces.\nIn an era in which “I have many black friends” is often a medal of Wokeness, Ben hilariously chronicles the experience of being on the receiving end of those fist bumps. He takes us through his immigrant childhood, from wanting nothing more than friends to sit with at lunch, to his awkward teenage years, to college in the age of Obama, and adulthood in the Trump administration—two sides of the same American coin.\nBen takes his role as your new black friend seriously, providing original and borrowed wisdom on stereotypes, slurs, the whole “swimming thing,” how much Beyoncé is too much Beyoncé, Black Girl Magic, the rise of the Karens, affirmative action, the Black Lives Matter movement, and other conversations you might want to have with your new BBFF.\nOscillating between the impulse to be \"one of the good ones\" and the occasional need to excuse himself to the restrooms, stuff his mouth with toilet paper, and scream, Ben navigates his own Blackness as an \"Oreo\" with too many opinions for his father’s liking, an encyclopedic knowledge of CW teen dramas, and a mouth he can't always control.\nFrom cheating his way out of swim tests to discovering stray family members in unlikely places, he finds the punchline in the serious while acknowledging the blunt truths of existing as a Black man in today’s world.\nExtremely timely, Sure, I’ll Be Your Black Friend is a conversational take on topics both light and heavy, universal and deeply personal, which reveals incisive truths about the need for connection in all of us.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 0063026449\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: RDV.0063026449.G\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Philippe, Ben\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: This book is in good condition with very minimal damage. Pages may have minimal notes or highlighting. Cover image on the book may vary from photo. Ships out quickly in a secure plastic mailer.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Reliant Bookstore","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46152110866609,"sku":"RDV.0063026449.G","price":6.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0544\/8872\/7729\/files\/0063026449-0.jpg?v=1755451537","url":"https:\/\/www.reliantbookstore.com\/products\/sure-ill-be-your-black-friend-notes-from-the-other-side-of-the-fist-bump","provider":"Reliant Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}