How Not to Get Shot, by D.L. Hughley

Comedian D.L. Hughley has written a mostly unfunny book about race in America.  How Not to Get Shot and Other Advice from White People is a stinging rebuke to white people who have anything to say after a black person is shot by a police officer.  If his goal were to improve race relations, he would have failed miserably.  But his goal really was to commiserate with race activists in the Black Lives Matter mold.

As jarring and sometimes offensive as this book was to me, as a white man, it made me sad.  It's sad that, whether in reality or perception, black people in America don't agree with Michelle Obama, who Hughley quotes as saying "this right now is the greatest country on earth."  Unfortunately, the media is happy to focus on negative examples of race relations, and entertainers like Hughley perpetuate the idea in popular culture.

Hughley complains about popular stereotypes of black people, but he's happy to speak about white people as a group, making assumptions and accusations based on the behavior of a small number.  Citing statistics about unarmed black people being killed by the police, he writes, "when it comes to black people, [white people] believe this is the way the system was designed to work.  It's supposed to be this way."  He really thinks white people are glad when unarmed black people are killed by police.  And should a killing go to trial, forget about finding an objective jury, especially in the South: "It's gotta be hard to find twelve white people in South Carolina who don't hate black people."  Seriously?  He generously grants that not every Trump voter is a racist, but he says "I think that they all were comfortable with racism."  Oh, and don't even think about marrying or adopting a black person if you're white: "If you're white, there ain't no niggas in your family and never will be."

While Trump's big mouth (or big twitter feed) provides plenty of ammo for people who want to accuse him of racism, I wish Hughley and other critics would pay attention to his actions and policies.  Blacks are doing better under Trump than they have done in decades.  Hughley points out that early in his administration, Trump met with "a rapper, two football players, and a comedian. . . because those are the positions he's used to seeing us black folk in."  Hughley conveniently failed to mention that in the first month of his presidency, Trump met with the presidents of HBCUs and signed an executive order supporting HBCUs.  (Hughley never went to college so maybe, as an entertainer, he feels insecure about being in a position Trump is "used to seeing us black folk in.")

I was reminded of Hughley when I read a quote from Booker T. Washington in a recent column by Walter E. Williams.  (Maybe these two black writers, one from the 19th century and one from the 21st, are "black people [white people] like [who] aren't black people that black people like"?)  Washington wrote, "There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs."  As long as the liberal media and their political enablers keep stoking the fires of racism, Hughley can keep making money selling books about race.



Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!