You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson

You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I had a number of people recc Robinson to me, both her book and TV so figured I'd give her a spin. Not a good idea....

Robinson obviously has a penchant for writing and is very well done in her voice in general. But her work was peppered every other sentence with a pop culture or "i'm going to be witty" reference that made it feel forced on paper. You can see that she's very well spoken so it felt like that awkward moment an adult tries to joke with the kids at the school dance. That "hello there, happy youth! I too can relate to you!" feeling.

The subject matter at first was very interesting, even thought provoking. But after the second or third chapter it dove down in to stereotypes and contradictory rants: first claiming she hates stereotyping then quickly using those same stereotypes against others. She also falls back on the whole "not everything is black and white" argument before plunging head first in to "America is all about black and white". I really can't hold someone in basic respect when they spin around like that in a bid to prove points.

The first few chapters were worth the read, after that it just fell apart. I honestly think I'd have liked it much more without the constant one liners and if the entire book had the same eloquence as the beginning.

Totally on the side: The overuse of the term POC (people of color). It's hard to state you're against dividing up everyone by black and white because we're a diverse country then use the term that pushes every nonwhite in to a single category.

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