Not a Genuine Black Man: My Life as an Outsider (Signed)
by Brian Copeland
- Used
- Paperback
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Very Good+
- ISBN 10
- 1596923113
- ISBN 13
- 9781596923119
- Seller
-
San Jose, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
"As an African American, I am disgusted every time I hear your voice because YOU are not a genuine Black man!" –AnonymousBrian Copeland was a successful stand-up comedian, radio talk show host and local news commentator in Northern California when he received the above letter—a letter that would change the course of his career. In his mid-thirties at the time, happily married with kids, Copeland seemed to be living the American Dream. But underneath the perfect exterior was a painful history of survival. In 1972, when Brian was eight years old, his mother moved their family to the last place on the earth black families were voluntarily going: the 99.9%-white-and-we-like-it-that-way San Francisco suburb of San Leandro. It was an attempt to give her children a better life, away from their abusive father. But it was also a risky move, as the city had been named one of the most racist suburbs in America just the year before. And no sooner had they arrived than it became clear that the town would live up to its reputation. The day they arrived, Brian got his first look at the inside of a cop car; he’d made the mistake of being a black kid walking to the park carrying a baseball bat. Nothing was easy in San Leandro—not getting a haircut for the first day of school ("we don’t cut that kind of hair"), not buying his little sister a Christmas present (his second brush with the law, this time for alleged shoplifting), not even staying in their apartment (the landlord attempted to evict them almost the moment they arrived). It was a childhood Brian spent all of his adulthood attempting to forget, until one letter opened the floodgates. The result was a comedy routine that became a one-man show, and has now become an arresting, often funny, ultimately moving memoir of how our surroundings make us who we are.
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Details
- Bookseller
- A Flare For Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 001696
- Title
- Not a Genuine Black Man: My Life as an Outsider (Signed)
- Author
- Brian Copeland
- Format/Binding
- Soft cover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition 1st Printing
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 1596923113
- ISBN 13
- 9781596923119
- Publisher
- MacAdam/Cage
- Place of Publication
- United States
- Date Published
- 2008
- Pages
- 250
- Bookseller catalogs
- Biography;
Terms of Sale
A Flare For Books
About the Seller
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Inscribed
- When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
- Good+
- A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.