Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

It's a very slightly but funny non-fiction of his experiences as a black man. It was really funny in parts. I liked it.

A collection of essays, personal experiences, and quick-witted observations, Ben Philippe writes about his journey in life as an immigrant from Haiti to Canada and then from Canada to the U.S., in academia, and trying to navigate a majority white space while also being called an "Oreo" for not completely fitting into Black spaces. His writing is candid while also approachable to readers because of his ability to be honest and vulnerable.
Though I haven't read his YA fiction, if they have the same humor and dry wit as his essays, sign me up!

The author’s tone is open and sprinkled with clever, self-expostulating humor. His sensations of disappointment and weakness are felt by the readers as the author resolves significant issues encompassing race, separation, and micro aggregations in his accounts. While this was a pleasant tune is, it seemed like the book battles to discover its tone. It now and then felt like an abnormal mixed bag of self-improvement, memoir, and social critique which started much stronger in the beginning while later parts fell a bit flat for me. His perspectives and cultural perceptions are very real, now and then reminiscent, and will be educational for many readers.

The genre of the book is a memoir where the author begins with his adolescence in Haiti, then his migration to Canada, his education at Columbia, MFA from the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, and his re-visitation of New York City where he prevails in his profession as an essayist and screenwriter. He can be biting entertaining, and my heart broke when I was reading about his weaknesses as a kid, then a youngster, and afterward as an individual of color. This book is additionally semi-self-portrayal, managing the misgivings the author faced, not just about himself and his obscurity and how that affects him yet in addition as a frivolous, withdrawn individual, which he transparently states he is. What the readers likewise find in this book is simply the sincerity of the author, some modest boasting, some self-devaluation, some weakness, and the relating of some not being an incredible individual at occasions.

This book is a fast read, however, because it is speedy, doesn’t mean his tales won’t burn their direction into the readers' cognizance. His interpretation of privilege, and how it is underestimated by the individuals who have it and horrendously missing to the individuals who don’t, is too consistent with ever be entertaining. He gives us looks, through his encounters and his dreams, of daily existence, lived persistently through a channel of disparity and not as much as ness. Books like this can always be appreciated and we love more diversity.

Knowing only the title of one of his bestsellers, I dove into Philippe’s book know relatively little about him as an individual. I am always a fan of autobiographies because I want to hear about the lives from the people who lived them, not just through years of study.

Despite some of the negative reviews I have read about this book, I find his anger reasonable. A lot of anger was present in 2020 that had been hidden away for generations. Every time he referenced something or someone from last summer, I could visualize the scenes and words each time. The raw emotion in this book, going beyond just the last year, is something that needed to be written.

This is Phillipe's first nonfiction and not specifically YA. The end matter was definitely additive and kept the tone of informative snark. I especially liked his chapter about a male friend break-up, because that's a perspective I don't see often enough. This book is honest, snarky, really funny and a little meta. I'd recommend for HS to adult. 3 books from Ben Philippe in and I say with confidence that if he's writing it, I'm reading it, especially if James Fouhey reads the audio!

I’ll pretty much read anything by Ben Philippe and this book is no exception. Hand to readers who want to learn more about being a black man in America (and Canada). I also really enjoyed hearing Philippe’s feelings about the events of June 2020.

Thank you, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, for providing me an advance copy of this book. "Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend" is my first book by Ben Phillippe and I was initially drawn in by the tongue in cheek title.

To be honest, this book ended up being very different from what I first thought it would be from the initial description. I pictured this book being a funny / sarcastic take on what it's like being the "black friend". While there are elements of that in this book, there's also quite a bit of memoir and essays of Ben's life more generally. The book also touches much deeper on race relations, specifically in the US. While this book wasn't what I was expecting, I still think it's an important read. Ben's perspective on loneliness and always feeling like an outsider will resonate with so many people.

While I initially picked this book up because I thought it would be a funny read, I actually found myself enjoying the less sanitized and less surface level excerpts more. When he was more direct in dismantling the idiocracy of white folks the message felt more poignant. I would have liked to see him take this tone more often throughout the book. Regardless, it was still a great read that provided additional perspective on the world we live in.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a good white person of liberal leanings must be in want of a Black friend."

And with that satirical, skewering start, Ben Philippe writes his way right into my heart. And then batters and bruises it with an astonishingly candid, generously vulnerable memoir about the "quirks and maybe light trauma of having been the Black friend in white spaces" all his life.

"Light trauma." Good lord…

Yes, this is as witty-sarcastic as you'd expect. Both goofily humorous and bitingly so. A blend that I love. (And it's steeped in writerly humor, which I also love. He calls a group of Karens by their proper collective noun, for example — a Privilege of Karens.) But it's not the humor I'll remember. In fact, a few weeks have passed between my reading the book and my writing this review — rewriting, actually, because the web form I was lazily composing in ate my first attempt. I don't really remember the zingers and wit, except that they were there and I appreciated them. I do remember Ben's unique perspective (as a Haitian Canadian New Yorker in academia), nerdy joy, ubiquitous fear, and carefully controlled anger that is unleashed precisely once in a spectacularly chilling fantasy scene of war and terror. There's nothing light about the trauma that Black people in America encounter.

(Note: If the chilling fantasy terror scene rattles you — that's probably good. Maybe sit with that feeling of fear and anger for a few moments. Let it deepen your empathy. But do your due diligence, too. Consider it in context and seek out interviews with the author to help you understand it. Other content notes: strong language, physical punishment of a child, absent father, frank description of sex with brief mention of a partner's rape fantasy, microaggressions)

I will never regret reading this book. The majority of the book is lighthearted, until it's not. It's important to feel uncomfortable sometimes. Uncomfortableness equals small steps towards real change. Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.

Not at all what I was thinking it was! Philippe has a very acerbic, cut right to the chase style of writing, and it works for all of these essays.

Ben Philippe seems like a really intelligent and down-to-earth person. Although I enjoyed this book, I don't think it was very memorable. With that being said, I appreciate anyone who is brutally honest and doesn't sugarcoat the truth when it comes to race relations in America. I think this book is an important read, even though I'm only giving it 3 stars. Ben isn't afraid to speak his mind. If you are ignorant, self-centered, and a racist, you will hate this book. But if you're open-minded, compassionate, and believe in diversity then this book will make you feel good about being a human being. I absolutely love the title of this book!

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper for the digital ARC.

I actually do feel like Ben is my friend now, so there’s that. You can’t learn so much about someone and be let into their lives and not feel like you know them.

I needed this book. I’m learning, growing and listening. You don’t know what you don’t know, and I need someone to tell me all the things I don’t see. I need to see it through their eyes so I can feel it.

While reading this book, I laughed, I cried and I got angry, in that order. The way Ben wrote this book left the reader no choice than to connect with him. He let us into his life and told us his stories and touched us with his humanity. There are things we all go through, no matter what race; love, loss and abandonment.

This book won’t be for everyone, and that’s fine, but I will urge you to read it anyway because you won’t learn until you open yourself up to it.

Thank you to Netgalley, HarperCollins and and Ben Philippe for an early copy of this book.

I absolutely loved this collection by Ben Philippe. Through his own lived experiences with his family and his predominantly white friends in Canada and the United States, he brings up uncomfortable and heavy topics about what it means to be Black in North America. HIs approach made the text friendly and conversational, which made the hard topics he broaches throughout very approachable. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to have a deeper understanding of the Black experience in our current culture and adding anti-racist texts to their book list. Thank you Ben for this very needed and important discussion.

Thanks to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for the advance reading copy.

Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend is a great collection of essays from Ben Philippe. Its a humorous memoir about a Black man who was born in Haiti, grew up in Canada, and has spent his adult years in America. He had three different types of Black experiences in each country with America being more insidious than the previous two. I'm not the intended audience for this book, but I did enjoy reading it. As I read, I saw several experiences that the author and I had in common (for example being called an "Oreo"). Throughout the book, Philippe covers things that White people should not say or do if they aspire to have a Black friend. For example, don't touch our hair, don't openly express your disinterest of dating Black people on apps, don't ask why you can't say the n-word, etc.

Most of the book covers the various racial experiences in Philippe's life in short chapters with creative titles. Each chapter is its own experience, you never know how each one will end. In some cases, chapters can catch you off guard (i.e. Chapter 24: Black Man Goes, "Boo"). Some of my favorites include his story on how he "passed" Columbia University's swim test, the Black women who influenced him (one of whom designed the book's cover), and his experiences with ghosting and online dating. He closes his book with chapters that are ripped from the headline: experiences with a male and female "Karen" and his reaction to the 2020 racial justice protests. His writing is very powerful in the later chapters while still putting his humor on very bleak topics. I resonated the most with his descriptions on the things he has to do to be safe as a Black man in America (i.e. don't get angry). This is a very important, albeit humorous, book to read in our current moment of racial reckoning.

Hi, Ben! I hope you're well. You seem like the kind of person who reads your book reviews (which I think because I posted I was reading your book on the 'gram and you responded in like two seconds. But I fangirled over that, so no worries). You already know this (<ahem>, Wunderkind!), but your writing style is fantastic and as soon as I started reading "Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend", I wanted other people to read it too. I'm into the stream of conscious narrative style vignettes you've composed, and I think that you've organized them almost like a television series that leads up to the part of the arc where you pretty much drop a bomb on your audience to shake things up and reveal the protagonist's purpose in a plot twist that would certainly trend on Twitter. Suddenly I'm on the edge of my seat . . . up all night . . . going back through the stories, trying to piece it all together. I might have needed a pop culture course to keep up with your references, but I think I did all right for a sort of middle-aged white woman from the NYC burbs. So, now that you know that about me, I have to say your possible revenge sequence is nothing I'd ever imagined happening in the world. And I think you're wrong about your anger ... it is a gift (RATM is my favorite band - I'm that kind of white person. Judge accordingly.). If you stop being angry then it all just stays the same. This is why I think this book is Season 1. Even if the next season isn't greenlighted until a different stage of your life, your unique perspective on race as a Canadian import to the United States by way of Haiti offers a facet of perspective that I have not yet encountered. And I want more of it. So, Cheers! And I'm around if you ever need someone to pay for your brunch.

I received this ARC from NetGalley.

Sure, I’ll Be Your Black Friend is a collection of essays that serve as Ben Philippe’s memoir. He shares his experiences as a Haitian born, Canadian raised Black man navigating predominantly white spaces. It is clear from his work that he is very bright and extremely witty. His humorous touch softens the blow of tough conversations.

I have read two young adult authors by this author and absolutely loved them both. I was eager to read this upcoming book. I only read a few chapters before I decided that I don’t care to finish the book. While I had no issue with his writing, I felt like I wasn’t the target audience for this book. I don’t have any experience being THE Black friend. I have no desire to be in that position in the future. I found myself chuckling at his essays, but I don’t have a need to learn about why you shouldn’t ask your Black friend if you can touch their hair.

The little bit that I read was well-written, but it wasn’t enough for me to give a fair rating. I will add this to my “Did Not Finish” shelf and leave it unrated. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the advanced copy.

This book is extremely well written. The author’s acerbic wit makes for a quick read that achieves the title goal of feeling like his friend. The author has a unique back story that deserves to be heard. His political commentary as a Haitian-Canadian in America is especially interesting when discussing Trump’s disparaging comments on Haiti. The author never loses his sense of humor, even when reliving the ugliest of racist moments in his past- that is until the book climaxes at the George Floyd protests of Summer 2020. His honest feelings on participating in marches is something all white people need to read. Also, I like the book recommendations for further reading where the author cedes authority or eloquence on a subject.

Disclaimer: I was already a huge fan of Ben Philippe’s YA novels before starting this book.

Now, I’m an even bigger fan— of Ben the writer and Ben the person. His memoir in essays was originally intended to describe the “quirks and maybe light trauma of having been the Black friend in white spaces all my life.” And there is a good amount of that... he recounts his childhood and college experiences with humor, but also with honesty and vulnerability. He calls out the microaggressions he experienced, and sprinkles further reading suggestions throughout— since, as he puts it, “there will be no expertise here. That is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s lane.”

But his goal is not to entertain or to make white readers comfortable. While he was writing this book, spring and summer 2020 happened— Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. And the final chapters of the book are very much about his anger and his exhaustion and his frustration with “this important summer that I fear we won’t remember next year.” He talks at length about the privileges he’s had, the choices he’s made, and how he realizes he is seen as “one of the good ones.” And the two-pronged frustration this instills: first, that there is a measuring stick of white approval; and second, that he could still very easily become a statistic.

Several months ago, I reviewed Frederick Joseph’s The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person. It garnered some starred reviews. There were things I thought Joseph did well, but his patronizing tone really put me off. I didn’t get the impression Joseph had friendly feelings for his readers. That’s not the case with Ben’s book. Ben’s friendship is the one I’d fight a lot harder for.

The audience is general adult. The conversational tone will appeal to teens, but the book does include a somewhat explicit (though not gratuitous) sex scene.

Thanks to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for the electronic arc.

Young Adult author Ben Philippe delivers funny, heartbreaking, and poignant anecdotes about being a Haitian Canadian in America today.

Ben Philippe was born in Haiti and as a young child, moved to Canada, and later settled in the United States for college. In this collection of essays, Ben touches on how is parents, his surroundings, and race affected his upbringing. He has a naturally funny and witty voice, speaking to the reader as if a good friend. There are both very funny and silly essay but also heart wrenching ones as he dives into his family history and the racism that he has faced over the years. Some essays are definitely stronger than others, but overall, this is a great memoir/essay collection. Ben is a phenomenal writer and all of the issues and ideas covered in this book are very relevant. Highly recommended to those who are looking for new essay collections or memoirs, especially book clubs.