{"product_id":"sure-ill-be-your-black-friend-notes-from-the-other-side-of-the-fist-bump-9780063026445","title":"Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend: Notes from the Other Side of the Fist Bump","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eIt is a truth universally acknowledged that a good white person of liberal leanings must be in want of a Black friend.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn the biting, hilarious vein of \u003cem\u003eWhat Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eWe Are Never Meeting in Real Life \u003c\/em\u003ecomes 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. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBen 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOscillating 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e From 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExtremely timely, \u003cem\u003eSure, I'll Be Your Black Friend\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePhilippe, Ben:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Philippe\u003c\/strong\u003e is a New York-based writer and screenwriter, born in Haiti and raised in Montreal, Canada. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and an MFA in fiction and screenwriting from the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas. He also teaches film studies and screenwriting at Barnard College. He is the author of the William C. Morris Award-winning novel \u003cem\u003eThe Field Guide to the North American Teenager\u003c\/em\u003e. Find him online at www.benphilippe.com.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50651342733586,"sku":"9780063026445","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ac75d300-1162-4dc1-a5e7-9a62cc2e5cf6.jpg?v=1733299748","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/sure-ill-be-your-black-friend-notes-from-the-other-side-of-the-fist-bump-9780063026445","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}