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Casting Calls for People of Color That Were Not Written by People of Color (170-

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Casting Calls for People of Color That Were Not Written by People of Color (170-

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Even though the world is changing that doesn't mean that the stereotypes that have existed before, don't exist now. Robinson goes on to explore her own list of stereotypes and specified roles that African Americans have been known to play. From these stereotypes, we find that the different ethnicities are now limited to only playing that of the stereotype.

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Robinson on pursuing her stand up career

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Robinson on pursuing her stand up career

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"The second I touched the microphone, I knew stand-up was what I was meant to do with my life. It felt like second nature, even though I had never told a written joke before in my life...After five and a half years of working a day job, I was able to quit and pursue stand-up and acting full time" (166)

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Casting Calls for People of Color That Were Not Written by People of Color (159-169)

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Casting Calls for People of Color That Were Not Written by People of Color (159-169)

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Robinson points out the lack of diversity in Hollywood and show business. Specifically the roles for people of color, and the fact that for a long time there were almost none, or none of them realistically set. Despite this, she still chooses to believe in change. TV shows, movies, and the media in general has evolved to be more inclusive of the ethnicities.

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"...only those with racism, sexism, and homophobia do the perpetrator of those injustices seek verification that what they did was actually an injustice." (153)

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On the subject of uppity, Robinson talks about coded language hidden in many modern day conversations. Although the world looks different than it did generations ago, some of the conflicts that we face still stand. Coded language is, "...language that, on the surface, seems to mean one thing to the average person but has a different, often pejorative, meaning to the person being talked about...Coded language allows the speaker to deny any sort of responsibility unless their back is against the wall, in which case they'll generally offer up a paltry 'I'm sorry you feel that way' nonapology."(147)

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"2 Dope Queens" hosts on tackling racism, their "instant chemistry"

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Jessica Williams & Phoebe Robinson - How “2 Dope Queens” Took Over HBO | The Daily Show

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"...uppity was a word often coupled with nigger back in the day. This phrase was used to put black people who possessed qualities normally associated with white men--ambition, high intellect, ego--back in their place" (145). After recalling her experience of a stand-up show gone wrong, the word uppity haunts Robinson. As well as many African Americans today. A number of years ago, Robinson was a contestant in a reality TV style stand-up comedy competition. For her, this was her "big break" but it ended up going sour when the judges humiliated her. Aside from almost completely disregarding her actual performance, they attacked her for her looks, and gave her the impression that she "...looked like the kind of black that they didn't want." (142)

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"Pointing out how modern-day institutionalized racism prevents blacks from getting jobs and paints them as angry, scary, and a menace to society by the police until proven otherwise is not me reveling in victimhood. It's acknowledging the current environment as the first step in attempting to change it." (131)

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"While I understand that half the time people are merely regurgitating whatever nonsense they heard from family, friends, and media without thinking, it doesn't change the fact that they repeated it, so they cannot deny culpability." (126)

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How to Avoid Being the Black Friend (125-133)

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How to Avoid Being the Black Friend (125-133)

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Robinson's guide to not being classified as the Black Friend, aside from coping with assumptions that white people may make, includes rules to live by. Rules that mean to counter assumptions that might be made. One of these is to make sure any unintentional and intentional racist comments made do not go unnoticed. A real life situation that Robinson had come across in college, "...there's nothing funny about reducing me to the damaging stereotypes that have stuck around for centuries...I should have spoken up, but I didn't, because on some level, I still cared what they thought of me...unfortunately, this series of events--being wronged by another party and saying nothing about it--is all too familiar for many black people, especially black women" (125).

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How to Avoid Being the Black Friend (119-124)

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How to Avoid Being the Black Friend (119-124)

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Robinson gives her take on the well-known to most, role of "The Black Friend" through telling her own experiences, that much of the audience can relate to. To her, being The Black Friend is often the person of color in the friend group that is often treated a different way, or has somehow gotten different expectations purely because they are black. I find myself relating to this when she says that The Black Friend is often paired with another black friend, by a white person, because they are both black. This situation has happened to me before, when I met another Filipino. We met at a party, and afterwards, my friends had texted me, telling me that we would make a cute couple.

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Dear Future Female President: My List of Demands (106-118)

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Dear Future Female President: My List of Demands (106-118)

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Like most people, we all have those things about society, politics, media, etc. that we wish we could change. Through this section of her autobiography, Robinson names her own. Beneath all the jokes, Robinson hits some serious points and topics. "...once the laughs subsided, all that remained was the knowledge that uninformed people are in positions of power, and that is scary," (112). This sentence makes me look at our society differently, once again. Maybe it's because I believe it. When Robinson says this, she's referring to how most of informational media and politics on women's bodies and reproductive rights, is led by men. "...it's absurd that women are, for the most part, left out of the conversation about their own bodies, but also because most of these clowns don't actually know how the female body works." (111-112)

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In another instance, we see the racist fuel behind the case of an Ohio lesbian couple who were artificially inseminated so as to make their family grow. In a mix-up at the sperm bank, the couple who were expecting a blond hair and blue-eyed baby, had given birth to a biracial daughter. Three years after, the couple had filed a lawsuit against the sperm bank, under wrongful birth and breach of warranty. In the way that Robinson tells this story, is infuriating, as it gives a whole different perspective. To see the racist side to the cause behind this "problem." "Her parents making it national knowledge that she is not necessarily the child they envisioned...the truth is her parents are making it harder for her...denying their child in this way, Zinkon and Cramblett have inflicted irreparable psychological  damage on their daughter that will forever shape her self-perception--a self-perception that already has to contend with the litany of any negative outside forces that affect the lives of every person of color...pretending it's not about race is an insult to everyone's intelligence." (90-94). The entire situation, now become a scar on this baby's life, as she won't know any other life than the one where, "...she was not wanted because of the color of her skin." (94). Unlike many in modern day society, Robinson focuses on the impact that this case has on the child, rather than the parents.

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2 white Ohio women sue over sperm from black

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Dear Future Female Presidents: My List of Demands (100-105)

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Dear Future Female Presidents: My List of Demands (100-105)

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In Robinson's message to the future female presidents, she gets her audience thinking about society and our own lifestyles. Directed towards another woman in America, Robinson stands for self-empowerment. She calls out the social standards set by high expectations, and recognizes the absurdity of it all. How unrealistic it is to expect so much of a woman, to fit into such a specific stereotype, that most women do not fit. Especially when it means that, in not fitting said stereotype, you as woman, are not enough. Women struggle to love themselves and their bodies, because of this.

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Robinson calls into light some past controversial instances in which racism had been the key factor to the situation. Specifically, white people trying to understand what life truly is for a black person in America. From the cinematic view, Robinson uses the film Soul Man starring C. Thomas Howell, as her main example. Howell portrays a would be Harvard student who pretends to be black in order to obtain a scholarship for African-American students, so that he may get in. Howell's character wears a variation of blackface and wears a curly wig when he attends the school, and eventually learns that he is treated differently because he is "black." Robinson recognizes that the film in itself is completely absurd and unrealistic. Overall, in an attempt of white people attempting to understand the experience of a black person, Soul Man was one of the many that most believe had failed.

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Growing up in this society, Robinson had come to realize the little things that happen to her and black people across the country. The small things and adjustments that they, and others make, to cope with the fact that they are black. The details that many miss, and sometimes ignore. We often miss these factors to daily life, as by now it has become expected that racism is no longer an issue in American society. Robinson shows us that, despite being less extreme in a sense, it is still prevalent in many aspects of life in America and around the world. Continuing with the stereotypes of society today, Robinson shares her own experiences of modern day racism hidden in the scenarios and situations that she has come across. The stores clerk who refused to help her, before helping two other white people, despite being first. The disrespectful "life hack" of, leaving the race/ethnicity box blank on a job search website, would give her better results, than checking the box "black." The potential landlord who would be less rude to her, if she were to bring a white friend with her. As Robinson puts it, " All those things and many more reinforce the idea that who I am is the problem...it seemed the universe was using this to say 'In case you forgot, I'm here to remind you. Welcome, once again, to being black.'" (86)

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To help her audience understand the main concept of what she's saying, what it's like to be black in the 21st century American society, Robinson uses pop culture references and different scenarios. Robinson starts by addressing that often the "blackness" of someone can evolve from something that describes them or a specific quality that they have, to their entire identity. For her, being a black person means, "...coming to terms with being treated like the 'Other,' accepting that a lot of people will view your actions as either defying or affirming preconceived notions about you"(78). Meaning that there are always going to be those spoken and unspoken stereotypes that people will expect you to fit into. Because of this, Robinson finds herself among the many that change things about themselves, so as not to be categorized into what most people expect them to be, so as to avoid feeling attacked because of doing so.

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My Nine Favorite Not-So-Guilty Pleasures (53-78)

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My Nine Favorite Not-So-Guilty Pleasures (53-78)

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As Robinson puts it, being a black woman of today in America means that people will expect you to a certain way and to like certain things. An expectation to "act black" and it's completely unrealistic. Robinson points out that sometimes you just like what you like. She finds that the habits that she's picked up in her lifetime are now considered "white people stuff." While explaining this, Robinson of course provides a comedic element to make the audience smile. A well as teaching us the lessons. Her fifth not-so-guilty pleasure is Googling herself, and in doing so she's created a set of rules to follow. Some of these rules can be carried out past googling yourself. In one instance, "Public opinion...take none of it to heart except if it comes from a person whom you love. And even then, you kind of have to take it easy on how much your loved ones influence your self-perception"(67). As well as when she says, "I'm not going to feel weird or embarrassed about them [guilty pleasures] and neither should you about the things you love" (77)

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A Brief History of Black Hair in Film, TV, Music, and Media (36-52)

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A Brief History of Black Hair in Film, TV, Music, and Media (36-52)

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In her introduction to famous black people in the media throughout history, Robinson gives the audience one statement that can alter one's entire perspective. In today's society, there are several, unrealistic, beauty standards. It's so rare that someone whom you actually know personally, meets all if these standards. Sometimes, these standards can be biased against or in support of a person, or in this case, entire race. We realize this when Robinson says, "Grace [Jones], after all, is an artist, something that society conveniently forgets that black women can be" (36). This one sentence can change everything. The oppression and misrepresentation that too many different races and cultures experience, especially in the media. At this point, it's become too much for too long. As she continues on, Robinson enlightens us on more modern day heroes that encourage us to break society's rules. That perfection is unattainable, because we're human.

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A Brief History of Black Hair in Film, TV, Music, and Media (27-36)

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A Brief History of Black Hair in Film, TV, Music, and Media (27-36)

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At this point in history, Black culture is becoming a key part to society. Robinson dedicates this part of her autobiography to famous black people. As well as all of the different black hairstyles that we see in the media. Robinson evaluates the celebrities throughut the years. People on TV now aren't all white or completely whitewashed. Hollywood is evolving and we now see people of different races and backgrounds.

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From Little Rock Nine to Nappy Hair, Don't Care in Eighteen and a Half-ish Years (1-26)

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From Little Rock Nine to Nappy Hair, Don't Care in Eighteen and a Half-ish Years (1-26)

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In the first chapter of this autobiography, we meet Phoebe Robinson. She tells us just what this book is about, and a history on her relationship with her hair. As an African American women, she had struggled with her hair for a good portion of her life. Her tight coils were so different from all the white girls at her school. So she had started getting it done. Perms, relaxers, hot combing it, etc. For so long a Black woman's natural hair was frowned upon. We also learn that Robinson had attended a formerly predominantly white high school, and she had noticed just how difficult it was to be different than most people. She had never really had anyone who had understood how complex the process of her type of hair was. Despite this, Robinson had grown and made the discovery to love herself, in her own skin, with her own natural hair.

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How '2 Dope Queens' co-host Phoebe Robinson found her place in comedy

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Phoebe Robinson's costar on their podcast "2 Dope Queens" and close friend Jessica Williams gives the audience a quick glance into the the overall tone of the autobiography. In her foreword, Williams introduces Robinson as her work wife. Williams provides a story of their history, how they had come to grow so close.

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2 Dope Queens: Jessica Williams & Phoebe Robinson | HBO

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Robinson, Phoebe. You Can't Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to
Explain. Plume, 2016. Penguin Random House LLC.