You will and won't believe the anecdotes about the racism, a sweet and petite Black woman living in Omaha, faces on a daily basis. She and her sister, a comedy writer, tell the tales in a conversational, sisterly manner that's like another character in this book of humor and pain. Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar are conscious of writing for a Black and non-Black readership. There are asides to the different constituencies, noting that for Black readers, this is a "we see you/we know your pain" story. For non-Black readers, the message is this is real.

Despite the heaviness of the topic, the humor and lightness of the tone make You'll Never a quick and kinda sorta fun read. As a white person, I appreciate the chance to see into a world I'm not part of and to learn from the micro- and macroaggressions shared in the book. Like

...Mrs. Art was one of those "women are the n*****s of the world" type of people who want so desperately for white women's suffering to outweigh the suffering of Black people, You know--one of those.
Throughout the school year, Mrs. Art says all kinds of doozies. She would call Black students "colored" or "negro." Now, Lacey was a bit young to know that if you use those words, you're for certain a piece of shit.

...

Mrs. Art showed her true colors when she told the class that slavery was not as bad as it seemed. It made white people look bad, but having slaves was nothing but peer pressure."

This is real, late 20th-century public education in America's heartland.
You can't have a book about racism in the US without a chapter about dealings with the police.

...when you deal with cops, it's not only your job to do what they say, it's your job to de-escalate the situation. A lot of these cops come at you at a ten and if you want to survive the interaction, you gotta get 'em down to a six.

It's hard to get them down when they're wrong and you're not doing anything more provocative than not being guilty.
These stories are told in a way that they're funny, and even relatable (probably because I watch a lot of TV and read a lot of books and zines and follow a lot of other media that detail daily, sometimes deadly racism), but if you take a second to reflect, like I am now, there's nothing humorous about it.