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You can't touch my hair : and other things I still have to explain

2016

Format:	Book
Author:	Robinson, Phoebe, author.
Title:	You can't touch my hair : and other things I still have to explain / Phoebe Robinson.
Publisher, Date:	New York, New York : Plume Book, [2016]
Description:	285 pages ; 21 cm
Subjects:	Robinson, Phoebe. Robinson, Phoebe -- Humor. African American women comedians -- Biography. Television comedy writers -- United States -- Biography.
Other Title:	You can not touch my hair
Contents:	Introduction -- From Little Rock Nine to nappy hair, don't care in eighteen & half-ish years -- A brief history of black hair in film, tv, music, & media -- My nine favorite guilty pleasures -- Welcome to being black -- Dear future female president: my list of demands -- How to avoid being the black friend -- Uppity -- Casting calls for people of color that were not written by people of color -- The angry black woman myth -- People, places, & things that need to do better -- Letters to Olivia.
LCCN:	2016018322
ISBN:	9780143129202 (trade pbk.)
System Availability:	1
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Fiction/Biography Profile

Genre
	NonFiction
	Collection
	Essay
	Humor
	Sociology
Topics
	Race relations
	Feminism
	Gender roles
	Pop culture
Time Period
	2000s -- 21st century

Trade Reviews

Library Journal Review

Comedian and cohost of the podcast Two Dope Queens delivers a very funny essay collection about hair, her love of Billy Joel, and having white friends. (LJ 9/15/16; Editors' Fall Pick) © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Robinson, a stand-up comedian and host of the WNYC podcast 2 Dope Queens, brings a funny and original voice to her debut book of essays, combining personal experience with social commentary on race, gender, and pop culture. Moving, poignant, witty, and funny, Robinson takes on America's "tumultuous" relationship with African-American hair, providing a history of black hair on the stage and screen as well as her own relationship with her hair (she didn't go natural until after she finished high school). In other essays, she rants about the way the NFL treats women, discusses the demands she'd make on the first female U.S. president, and explains how to avoid being the token black friend. Robinson reveals how she uses her humor to survive the indignities that go along with being black in America, such as being followed around while shopping in stores or being called "uppity" for expressing her wishes to a white director. This is a promising debut by a talented, genuinely funny writer. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Robinson dates basic Chris Pine-looking dudes, goes to Billy Joel concerts, knows which member of U2 she would sleep with first (because she'd sleep with all of them), but don't think for a second she's anything but her authentic self, a blackity black black lady, with no diet version of me available. Known for podcasts 2 Dope Queens and Sooo Many White Dudes, she writes, acts, and does stand-up, too, and has lots to say about doing these things while being black and female. Riffy and plumb full of pop-culture references, LOL-worthy invented shorthand, and hilariously long-winded similes and metaphors, Robinson's nimble essay collection starts with her hair: how it has defined her and other people of color for ages, and also how you seriously can't touch it (ever). Robinson pays homage to the women who taught her to embrace her uniqueness and goes deep on racism encountered in her career and in media and society at-large. Skewering and laugh-out-loud funny, this collection will, thankfully, bring Robinson's voice to an even larger audience.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2016 Booklist

Kirkus Review

A black female comedian lays it all out there.Stand-up comic and co-star of the WNYC podcast 2 Dope Girls, Robinson has a lot to complain about, starting with the need people have to touch her hair. In case readers fail to pick up on her humorous vibes regarding hair, the author includes a second chapter on the history of black hair in film, TV, and other media. Throughout the booka hybrid of humor, truth-telling, and poking-fun-at-life-in-generalRobinson delves into what it means to be a woman and black and, more importantly, a black woman in todays American society. Filled with references to pop culture and plenty of hashtags, the narrative addresses issues like how to avoid being the one black friend in a group of white people, the difficulty of being hired to play a role in a show because youre either too black or too light, and why NFL players need to treat women better. She gives readers her list of nine guilty pleasures (No. 1: Ranking Members of U2 in the Order of Whom I Want to Sleep With; The Edge is first) and a list of demands for a future female president, including penalizing those who perpetuate the thigh-gap obsession. She also explains why Lisa Bonet is Bae. Queen. Jesus and waxes poetic on why she takes her laundry home to her parents house. If a person were to play [the dryer] in a moviedont ask me whyit would be played by Meryl Streep, she writes. The dryer is that damn good. Although the humor is forced and tiresome in places, Robinson does hit the mark on some important issues, and fans of her podcast will enjoy the book. Up-and-down humor that sometimes gets to the heart of the realities of being black in America. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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