To Be Real

During watershed moments of crisis or incessant hope, African Americans' varied stances around racial authenticity often bespeak a need to define who and whose they are, if only to contend with the enduring significance of race. In To Be Real: Truth and Racial Authenticity in African American Standup Comedy, Lanita Jacobs analyzes a decade of Black standup comedy to understand "realness" and "real Blackness" as a cultural imperative in African American culture. By consciously valuing a "real"--as opposed to strict notions of "the real" (which too often essentialize, objectify, and exclude)--this book reveals why authenticity matters to African Americans.