HOW TO SURVIVE AMERICA

In his fifth book, the comedian and activist continues his diatribe against the country’s “chronic illness” of systemic racism.

Throughout his latest, written in roughly the same blunt, no-nonsense style as How Not To Get Shot and Surrender, White People! Hughley focuses on the preposterous assumption that minority populations are predisposed to—and mostly to blame for—the injustices they’re forced to endure. Writing with frequent contributor Moe, Hughley combines his comedic talents with personal history and experience as a political commentator to address glaring discrepancies between White and Black populations regarding overall health, access to health care, toxic environments, educational bias, and violence. The author excoriates much of the former presidential administration, especially Jerome Adams and Ben Carson, for callously placing the blame for rising Covid-19 infections on the minority communities where cases were spiking. The author also shows how even wearing a mask during a pandemic can be dangerous for a Black person: “COVID-19 is deadly, but it doesn’t kill you as fast as a suspicious cop.” This statement seamlessly leads into discussions of the senseless deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others as well as criticisms of the lack of Black executives at Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and other conglomerates. Naturally and appropriately, Donald Trump bears the brunt of the author’s vitriol. “We knew Trump was gonna be a disaster,” writes the author, “but I don’t think anyone could have predicted that this motherfucker would get so many people killed before we could vote him out.” Hughley is palpably exasperated by the ineffectiveness of racial equality movements and the generational trickle-down effects of systemic racism. More darkly humorous, with fewer laugh-out-loud moments than Surrender, this book, saturated with justified anger and frustration, speaks to the fact that persistent racism in the U.S. is no laughing matter.

An acerbic and laser-focused demand for restorative racial justice from an ardent advocate.