Lotsa people, esp black people are gonna love this book. I sorta liked "Negropedia" by Patrice Evans. I smiled at the pokes and admired the cleverness. But its glib and get-down tone began to grate on me after awhile. Of course, none of my friends use that sort of language, ahem. At least, not my black friends, although a white friend or two has been known to let loose with a "That's a FINE lookin' booty" after a few beers.
Small doses as in a column or blog, would be okay, but a whole book of "Black comics somehow always want to project the vibe that they can lay the pipe." And, "So give them some dap if you're lucky enough to see them." Or, "if Maya Angelou and Heidi Montag are the last two women on earth, I may feel a little conflicted." -- too much glitter; too many balloons.
It's laughs, yucks, jokes, quips and prodigious wittyness in every line. But it's also, in two words, race-specific. Therefore, Black people will find it hilarious most of the time, whereas many White people will scratch their long silky hair, clear their Perrier lavished throats and wonder what "Seinfeld-a** ni**as" means.
Evans' takes on Claire Huxtable (in her own lucious bubble) and Erykah Badu (whee-hoo!); on "The Four Horsemen of the Postracial Apocalypse" (and all its valor and slips); and on black comics doing white schtick are funny and right on the money. Honey. And that's the problemo, see? He's got me writing that way, too! It's catching. Only, of course, he does it waaaaay a whole lot betta baby! And now I'm channeling Mike Myers! And that's the main point. What is Evans' real voice? What does he sound like when he speaks to his mother?
Okay, you may ask, as Pink sings, "Why so serious?" You'd be right. The book is a lot of fun, makes some good points, shoots a few bullets that are not blanks (now stop that!), can be sexy, irritating, off the mark, right on dead center, and extremely "in the know" in a trendy way. It is NOT uplifting, sassy, life- changing or deep. But maybe Evans didn't intend any of that in the first place.
Here's what I would do, shallow me. I'd wait to see if any of my friends were yakking up the book and if they were, I'd buy it. Otherwise, I'd give it a pass. Do you really need to know about the "Five A**es That Changed America" or "Can I Have Sex With a Racist"? If so, this is your book!
