Brian Copeland

Brian Copeland is a local celebrity so when I saw his book at the library, I knew I needed to read it. I was not disappointed.

Mr Copeland is the perfect example of how we can never know what's going on in someone else's life. The horror of being black in the Bay Area never truly came to my mind, until I read this book. While identifying with so many of the "outsider/don't fit in" stories, and definitely the "I don't know what I did wrong. I'm a good person, why do people hate me/bully me so much?" theme, I will never in a million years understand why having a non-pink skin tone is justification to be horrible to people who are just trying to live their lives.

It's no surprise that Mr. Copeland slid into depression and beyond. The story of how he recovered and deals with being black in America and black in the diverse (yet somehow still racist) San Francisco Bay Area is a story told with grace and dignity.

Thank you Mr. Copeland for writing such a book… (plus d'informations)

Brian Copeland's one-man show of the same name had a 2 year run in San Francisco, then moved to New York off Broadway. With wit, wisdom and sincerity, Copeland, a comedian and radio talk show host, shares his story of growing up as an African-American boy in San Leandro, Califronia, a city once nationally known as one of the "whitest" suburbs in the nation. Copeland weaves the history of the civil rights struggle in this town with his own struggles of love and abuse within his family, with his multicultural audience in laughter one moment and tears the next. The book expands his story with more details and is on my "must-read" list.… (plus d'informations)