Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend: Notes From The Other Side of the Fist Bump

With honesty, dry humour and a conversational tone, this collection of essays by author Ben Philppe centres on his experiences as a Black man who has found himself in predominantly white spaces throughout his life. 

The essays are on a range of topics from Philippe's perspective as a Haitian-born, Canadian-raised man who spent much of his 20's living in the US and his experiences in these three countries are vastly different. His tone is candid and sprinkled with witty, self-deprecating humour (our favourite kind of humour here in Canada). His feelings of frustration and vulnerability are felt by the reader as Philppe addresses important issues surrounding race, discrimination and microaggressions in his personal anecdotes.

While this was an enjoyable listen, it felt like the book struggles to find its tone. It sometimes felt like an awkward mishmash of self-help, memoir and social commentary with the beginning being much stronger (and funnier) while later parts fell a bit flat for me. His reflections and societal observations are quite personal, sometimes evocative and will be eye-opening for some readers. 

I enjoyed this audiobook for its candid tone, biting humour and emotional feel as Philippe discusses racism, privilege, his family life, and personal experiences as a Black man in North America. 

Note: Philippe includes helpful lists of books for readers who want to learn more on the topics addressed.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Author: Ben Philippe

Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction, Canadian

Type and Source: eAudiobook from public library

Narrator: Ben Philippe

Run Time: 8 hours, 29 minutes

Publisher: HarperCollins Audio

First Published: April 27, 2021

Opening Lines: It is a truth universally acknowledged that 

a good white person of liberal leanings must be in want 

of a Black friend - especially when said good 

white person is in good fortune. 

Book Description from GoodReads: In 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.

In an era in which “I have many black friends” is often a medal of Wokeness, Philippe 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.

Philippe 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 "Karen"s, affirmative action, the Black Lives Matter movement, and other conversations you might want to have with your new BBFF.

Oscillating 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, Philippe 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.

From cheating his way out of swim tests to discovering stray family members in unlikely places, Philippe finds the punchline in the serious while acknowledging the blunt truths of existing as a Black man in today’s world.

Extremely 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.