You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey

Crazy Stories about Racism

Contributors

By Amber Ruffin & LACEY LAMAR

By Lacey Lamar

Formats and Prices

Price

$14.99

Price

$18.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 12, 2021. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

*A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND INDIE NEXT PICK*

Writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers Amber Ruffin writes with her sister Lacey Lamar with humor and heart to share absurd anecdotes about everyday experiences of racism.

Now a writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and host of The Amber Ruffin Show, Amber Ruffin lives in New York, where she is no one’s First Black Friend and everyone is, as she puts it, “stark raving normal.” But Amber’s sister Lacey? She’s still living in their home state of Nebraska, and trust us, you’ll never believe what happened to Lacey.

From racist donut shops to strangers putting their whole hand in her hair, from being mistaken for a prostitute to being mistaken for Harriet Tubman, Lacey is a lightning rod for hilariously ridiculous yet all-too-real anecdotes. She’s the perfect mix of polite, beautiful, petite, and Black that apparently makes people think “I can say whatever I want to this woman.” And now, Amber and Lacey share these entertainingly horrifying stories through their laugh-out-loud sisterly banter. Painfully relatable or shockingly eye-opening (depending on how often you have personally been followed by security at department stores), this book tackles modern-day racism with the perfect balance of levity and gravity.

Genre:

  • "I
    dare you to read this hilarious and eye-opening book and not become obsessed
    with Amber Ruffin."
    Mindy Kaling
  • "If
    you laugh half as hard as I did at the FIRST story in this book, let alone the rest of the book, you will have
    gotten your money's worth. The stories made me laugh and they made me sad. I
    know I'm not the only one to experience these kinds of moments but it helps to
    know that someone else-poor little Black Lacey taking on the lion's share of
    Nebraska's white ignorance all by her lonesome- experiences it too. From the
    mental gymnastics needed to call a black store dirty then drive out of state in
    order to avoid said dirt only to wind up shopping in a sty operating in a white
    neighborhood to having the gall to try and holluh at black women on a dating
    app when your profile pics have the confederate flag in them, Amber & Lacey
    point out how white folks are apparently doing the most in them parts."
    Retta, comedian andactress (Parks & Recreation, Good Girls)
  • "The
    message of this book is for ALL of us and no matter why YOU'RE here --
    perhaps
    you're a fan of Amber Ruffin's comedy, or a Seth Meyers' fan, or a
    personal
    friend of Lacey's, or maybe you're just a person browsing for a book
    that will help you understand the Black experience in America and the
    other ones seem too
    much like school -- I urge you to BUY THIS BOOK. The stories are
    delivered with
    the humor and horror they deserve. You will laugh, you will be enraged,
    and if
    you are a white person, you will understand more than you did before
    about the truth of being Black in
    America -- even if you thought you understood a lot already because you
    read the
    hard school books."
    Busy Philipps, author, actor,white lady
  • "Amber and Lacey have the
    gift of making you comfortable enough to laugh at events that will also make
    you cringe. This book is an opportunity for black people to know you're not
    alone in how you've experienced the world. And for everyone this book is a
    chance to see a layer of this world that you might have been blind to. You'll
    leave both with a laugh and a little more knowledge."
    Roy Wood, Jr., correspondent, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
  • "Amber and Lacey hysterically walk us through a minefield of empirically traumatizing events, finding a way to make us laugh while weeping for the state of our nation; a place where two brilliant women are made to feel that somehow it is they who are missing the mark."
    Natasha Lyonne, quadruplethreat, noted surrealist
  • "Both maddening and funny, an eye-opening look at how its daily targets cope with racism."
    Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

On Sale
Jan 12, 2021
Page Count
240 pages
ISBN-13
9781538719343

Amber Ruffin & LACEY LAMAR

About the Author

Amber Ruffin is the host of The Amber Ruffin Show on NBC's streaming service, Peacock, and a writer and cast member on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers. She also amazingly became the first black woman to write for a late-night talk show in American history when she joined Seth's staff in 2014, and was a writer/sometimes performer on HBO's Black Lady Sketch Show
 
Lacey Lamar is Amber Ruffin’s big sister. After years of working for her community, she has landed in a profession where she helps immigrants find work in their new country. Living in Nebraska, Lacey loves the challenge of creating safe spaces for the celebration of Nerd/African-American culture.

Learn more about this author