Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist by Franchesca Ramsey- 4 Stars

[Joi]

While I had never heard of Franchesca Ramsey, I had seen the Youtube Video that started her career- Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls. This book is part memoir, part lesson on activism, part lesson on internet and social media trials and tribulations. The book weaves personal stories of Franchesca's life, which how she learns about how to use her comedic voice to help learn and teach about the heavy hitting subjects- largely race, but also intersectionality, cancel culture, and online activism.

I thought this was a very approachable and easy way into the big RACE conversation that can be daunting to tackle. The book is light in tone, but isn't afraid to dig deeper into difficult conversations. The negative was that many of the topics where only dug into a few inches deep. I definitely wanted MORE out of a lot of the topics- but I think this book is more meant to bridge the gap between internet culture and the topic of race and identity.

I really enjoyed the chapters that I LEARNED things from. I appreciated the chapter that spoke about Black women's hair, the history behind it, and the judgement Black women are still faced with today. I related a lot to the chapter on interracial marriages- while I'm not Black, I am in an interracial marriage- and I really resonated with a lot of the perceptions others see and judge without knowing anything about her or her husband. There are a lot of self-admitted "mistakes" that Franchesca shares- and how she learned from them, which is both introspective, and shows how we as a readers can learn and grow as well. She becomes such a relatable narrator for a journey into learning about activism.