How Not To Get Shot And Other Advice From White People by D.L. Hughley
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
Not how I usually do my reviews here, but today I am going to go straight into the official summary of this book before I get going on any of my thoughts:
“The fearless comedy legend—one of the “Original Kings of Comedy”—hilariously breaks down the wisdom of white people, advice that has been killing black folks in America for four hundred years and counting.
200 years ago, white people told black folks, “‘I suggest you pick the cotton if you don’t like getting whipped.” Today, it’s “comply with police orders if you don’t want to get shot.” Now comedian/activist D. L. Hughley–one the Original Kings of Comedy–confronts and remixes white people’s “advice” in this “hilarious examination of the current state of race relations in the United States” (Publishers Weekly).
In America, a black man is three times more likely to be killed in encounters with police than a white guy. If only he had complied with the cop, he might be alive today, pundits say in the aftermath of the latest shooting of an unarmed black man. Or, Maybe he shouldn’t have worn that hoodie … or, moved more slowly … not been out so late … Wait, why are black people allowed to drive, anyway?
This isn’t a new phenomenon. White people have been giving “advice” to black folks for as long as anyone can remember, telling them how to pick cotton, where to sit on a bus, what neighborhood to live in, when they can vote, and how to wear our pants. Despite centuries of whites’ advice, it seems black people still aren’t listening, and the results are tragic.
Now, at last, activist, comedian, and New York Times bestselling author D. L. Hughley offers How Not to Get Shot, an illustrated how-to guide for black people, full of insight from white people, translated by one of the funniest black dudes on the planet. In these pages you will learn how to act, dress, speak, walk, and drive in the safest manner possible. You also will finally understand the white mind. It is a book that can save lives. Or at least laugh through the pain.
Black people: Are you ready to not get shot! White people: Do you want to learn how to help the cause? Let’s go!”
This book is a satire of race relations in America….a “tragicomedy” is the best way I have seen it described.
D.L. Hughley wrote this in a voice that is informing black people about how to live their lives based on the REAL advice white people have given black people about BEING BLACK…… see the irony there?
(I seriously can not believe the insensitive and ignorant things my people have said…and continue to say….we are just plain ridiculous in thinking we know the “best” and “right” way to do ALLLLL THINGS…and who in the world do we think we are with our white selves telling black people how to live their own lives when we have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what it is like to live in a black body in the United States of America? )
This book has way more than just humor….it is also is filled with research that provides clear facts, information and advice on the messed up racist shit that keeps on happening in our country.
Police shootings are addressed in length, but the topics of poverty, protests, parenthood and even current and former Presidential administrations are also talked about.
Reading this book the exact same week of Jacob Blake getting shot in the back 7 times by Wisconsin police officers was a tragic reminder to me of the extreme URGENCY that change is needed in our policing system and justice system NOW.
Black bodies continue to be endangered, harmed and murdered EVERY SINGLE DAY yall….even during a freakin’ GLOBAL PANDEMIC….
And us white people need to WAKE THE HELL UP.
** I do want to take a second real quick and say I read some reviews written by members of the black community and several stated that this book could possibly be triggering for black readers if you aren’t in an okay headspace when you read it.
I know many of my black friends are straight up EXHAUSTED right now and are just overcome with heaviness at every turn. I know he states that he wrote this so black people reading it can laugh amidst their trauma, find comedy in the horror….but based on some of the black reviews I read, if you are feeling very emotionally heavy and are struggling in the murky waters of reality right now, his humor may not hit you in the way he intended. On the other hand, some black reviewers also stated that this book was exactly what their spirits needed to feel seen and validated right now, so it definitely could go either way depending on the person. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned this so my black friends are aware of the possibility of being triggered.**
The book is divided into 5 sections of “advice”: How Not To Get Shot By The Police, How To Look, How To Act, Understanding White People, and Tidbits Of Advice For White People From Black People.
I have to admit that while reading this book I would catch myself laughing…and immediately I’d question myself as to why I was…and if it was okay that I was….
Because there is nothing laughable about the reality of racism and the constant injustices that affect the black community.
Usually though what I found myself laughing at is the absurdity of my own white community…but then sometimes that laugh would halt immediately.
Because I would realize that there was a time I had said out loud (or thought in my head) the VERY EXACT THING the author had written about.
I confess there was a time years ago when I was one of the white people who said “Well if they would only comply with police orders they wouldn’t be harmed…”
UGH. AWFUL. I know. I am CRINGING just typing that.
Now I know how friggin ABSURD and UNTRUE that statement is…but there was a time long ago when I believed it.
So…D.L. Hughley sure did convict my ass quite a few times during this read.
He had me checking myself for real.
Which I think was his point for the white readers who pick this book up.
Now I want to go ahead and share some of the authors words as I like to do in my reviews of nonfiction books.
Since I listened to this on audio, I didn’t have a paper copy to reference back to…BUT…because I have a monthly subscription with the amazing app of Scribd I remembered I could go on there and access the e-book to reference! (if yall haven’t left Audible for Scribd yet….yall are missing out BIG TIME. Go do it TODAY. You will NEVER look back. TRUST)
Also, there are quite a few illustrations he includes in this book as well I was able to view in the e-book.
I did enjoy listening to this though because the author read it himself….I always appreciate hearing them read their words in the exact way they want them expressed….but being able to look at the print version too was helpful as well.
So if you are trying to decide between which version to use for this read, I think both audio AND visual options have equal benefits.
Here are some quotes from the book:
“The best part of reading white people advice on the Internet is seeing how it’s all laid out so simply. The simplicity of this piece of advice is its key: “Don’t break the law and you won’t get shot.” When black people can’t seem to follow this simple advice that has worked for them, white people are just incredulous. They’re frustrated. It’s sooooo simple. Don’t break the law and you won’t have a problem. If only black people could follow simple directions.
The implication is that if you weren’t guilty, you wouldn’t get shot. Sure, the death penalty is supposed to be for those tried and convicted of heinous, premeditated capital murder, but let’s not get bogged down in details. This conveniently omits all the people who were doing nothing wrong, who broke no laws and still got shot. Just a small sampling:
1.John Crawford, shot while holding a toy BB gun in a Walmart
2. Akai Gurley, shot while walking in his own apartment building’s stair well
3. Tamir Rice, a child shot while playing outside in the park”
“To me, the idea of “black-on-black crime” is more dangerous to black people than the word “nigger” ever was. Because it’s a call to arms that basically says that we have this urgent situation. Black people are killing black people and we have to do something about it before anything else. It’s used as a tool for inaction and to discredit Black Lives Matter, as if Black Lives Matter is ignoring a problem that needs to be solved before we can even talk about police violence. You even have black people like Ray Lewis and Fox Sports’ Jason Whitlock toeing this line. Just because one bad thing is happening, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to solve another. Fox News is just using it as an excuse not to deal with police violence. It’s a way to paint all black people as violent, as if they deserve violence.”
“A lot of white people find black people unfamiliar and make assumptions based on stereotypes. The fact that with no evidence so many people questioned if Obama was born in this country goes to show how white people find black people “different” and not “one of us.” When people refer to “real Americans” and so-called middle America, they’re talking about white folks who live in predominantly white areas—like in a fucking cornfield somewhere in Iowa.
Never mind that black people had been pouring their sweat and blood into American soil long before most white people’s ancestors showed up here: twenty blacks arrived in Virginia in 1519 , the year before the Mayflower landed.
And most slaves were brought over from Africa before 1808, even before the end of slavery in 1865. That means most African Americans’ ancestors arrived decades if not centuries before the waves of Irish, German, Italian, Jewish, and Polish immigration. Still, most everything in America is geared toward white people. American culture is presumed “white.”
“White people wish racism would just go away so they wouldn’t have to deal with it. Here’s the problem: We don’t get rid of racism when we cover shit up. You have to acknowledge it, look at it, and deal with it.
It’s like when your mother used to burn your toast and you still had to eat it. “Just scrape the black stuff off and it’s fine. The rest of it’s still good!”
No, it ain’t. No kid wants to eat that burnt toast. You can’t just scrape off the most obvious racism and say the rest is good toast! Throw that shit out. It’s time for a fresh slice.”
“Despite what Fox News tells you, black fathers are good fathers. The CDC tells us that black fathers are the most involved with their children, compared to any other group of fathers. For fathers living with their children, 70 percent bathed, diapered, or dressed their young children each day compared with 60 percent of white fathers. And 34 percent read to their kids, compared to 30 percent of white fathers. Even that Fox in Socks crap, and that shit is annoying.”
“Even after Trump referred to immigrants from Haiti and Africa as coming from “shithole countries,” some white people continue to claim he’s not racist. How is it that white men can be the experts on racism when not one of them has been called “nigger” before? America has always needed poor brown people to do our physical labor, poor brown people to do our intellectual labor. But Trump wonders why we can’t have more people coming from places like Norway?”
“White people say that they built America. But really, white people only supervised. They made the schedules up and gave out the work assignments.”
“The thing about “Make America Great Again” is this: Trump voters want America to be what it used to be. We black and brown folks want it to become what was promised. You look back; we look forward.”
“White people will tell you that you have the same rights as they do, but what happens when you try to exercise them? That’s a different story. Am I being extreme?
First Amendment: Did Sandra Bland have freedom of speech when she was taken into custody by a cop who didn’t like the way she spoke?
Second Amendment: Did Philando Castile have the right to bear arms when he was shot for having a gun?
Third Amendment: Do we have the right to not have the Redcoats take up residence in our homes? Is this what they called gentrification back then? Okay, to be fair, this one is mostly solved. But if there were Redcoats around, you know they’d be fucking with us.
Fourth Amendment: Did hundreds of black people have the right to not be stopped and frisked for no reason in their own communities?
Fifth Amendment: Did the Central Park Five have the right to not self-incriminate when they were forced to confess to a crime they didn’t commit?
Sixth Amendment: Do poor black people who rely on systematically underfunded public defenders’ offices have a right to a speedy trial?”
Just the other day I told someone on Facebook that if you want to know what the black American experience is like, then you have to LISTEN TO WHAT BLACK VOICES TELL YOU.
I feel like D.L. does this in such a straight forward, conversational way. He does it bluntly and gets to the point.
White people….you are probably gonna feel uncomfortable and even defensive when you read this.
But just sit in that.
And LISTEN UP.
Let his words wake you up, convict you, inform you, and change you.