-Our next guest are sisters and authors of the new book
"You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey:
Crazy Stories About Racism," which is on sale tomorrow.
Please welcome to the show Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar!
♪♪
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
-Hi! Oh, hello!
Oh. Hello. Hi. Ahh.
-Welcome, welcome.
-Oh, hi, Seth!
-Now, was this planned?
-Well, I had planned it.
[ Laughter ]
Lacey bought her dress, and then I bought the same dress,
and then I asked for the same makeup and hair!
-[ Laughter ] -So...
-So, Lacey, this is a sister of yours
who has her own television show.
She'll be on TV once a week. -Whenever.
-Whenever. And yet here she goes and steals your thunder.
-Steals my thunder. -[ Laughing ]
-But you have a younger sibling,
so do you kind of know what I'm going through?
-Although, right now I'm growing my hair out
and stealing his thunder, so I think -- I'm on your side.
But thank you so much for being here.
Amber, thank you for coming down the hall.
So, I want to talk about this book.
This is based on conversations that you guys have as sisters.
How often do you two talk?
-All of the time. -Every day. All the time.
-Yeah. -Every time --
Text chains or phone calls? Is it both?
-It's all of it. It's text chains.
Sometimes things get really important,
and it's got to be FaceTime.
A text will not do.
Sometimes I don't want to see her face, so I call her.
-She gets angry when I call.
I want to call all the time, and she doesn't.
-I have to see your face. -Interesting. Interesting.
So, these are real-life stories
of racist incidents that have happened to you.
I should stress -- because there are a lot of books,
very important books about race right now.
This is a very true story, and it's very troubling
to read it, but it's also very humorous.
-Yes it is. -Is that based on the fact
that when you guys talk about these stories,
is there laughter involved
when you are relaying these things to Amber?
-We laugh constantly, and those stories are hilarious.
I mean, there's a bad side to them, of course,
but when someone thinks you look like Harriet Tubman...
-Yes.
You did -- There's a great story in the beginning
about how you had a Harriet Tubman check.
-She had Black History Month checks.
So, like, checks were, like...
[Laughing] Martin Luther King and Marcus Garvey and stuff.
And then one of them was Harriet Tubman.
She handed this child a Harriet Tubman check,
and the cashier goes,
"Oh, I didn't know you could get pictures of yourself on checks."
[ Laughs ] And it's not a special picture
of Harriet Tubman that you're not thinking of.
It's the picture you're thinking of.
-It's the picture. Yeah. -Ain't but two. It's that one.
-What -- It's not -- A lot of these are workplace stories
and, like, things you've had to endure as a professional.
And through all different kinds of jobs, it should be noted.
Is there someone particular --
If you could pick any one person to read this book
or any one type of person, who would it be?
-Um...people in workplaces. Supervisors. CEOs.
I've had to sit across from a CEO and have conversations,
and they've blown my mind
with racist comments that they've made.
So people that are, um, running businesses,
that are in HR,
that think they know how to talk to people of color,
and they have no clue.
They need to take a look at the book.
-I was shocked to find out the HR stuff.
'Cause it's like -- "The call is coming from inside the house."
It's HR. HR is doing it. -Yes.
-There's a lot of -- HR does not --
Some people do not represent themselves well in this book,
but I'm wondering as people you know back in Omaha
read this book, do you think will they be able
to recognize themselves?
-They will -- Definitely.
They will remember the moment.
-Are there people that you think are excited --
knowing you, are excited to read the book not knowing
what's coming down the pike?
-I've had several of those phone calls and texts.
"Lacey, I heard a book's coming out. I am so excited."
And I'm like, "You're in there!"
[ Laughter ]
-Because, you know, one of the sort of recurring themes here
is a lot of -- Now, again, there is
some very purposeful, cruel racism in this book,
but there is a lot that I think people
would be surprised to hear,
the effect that it has on the person they are speaking to.
-Definitely.
-And that I think is one of the helpful things as a way --
Basically through this time we're living in,
it's, like, more people have to be thoughtful
of, like, how this is being heard
as opposed to how it's being thought of as you're saying it.
-Yeah. People aren't willing to look at the effect it has.
They're only willing to look at, like,
"How culpable am I?
How bad did this make me look?"
But that shouldn't even be a part of it.
It should be...
"What am I doing to people in the world?"
Lacey, did you want your drink? -Oh, of course. Thank you.
-I got a drink, too. -Thank you so much.
-By the way, I think it's very unfair
that they were served in "Amber Ruffin Show" glasses.
[ Laughter ]
-Turn it the right way.
-You better -- Drink that face-out.
-What about -- What about --
Your mother comes off very well in this book
as someone who knows how to deal with bad situations,
who stood up for her family.
You guys have two other sisters and a brother, as well.
As a very intelligent woman,
sort of a will not -- very no-nonsense.
Do you think she'll enjoy reading the book?
-No. -No. We will be in trouble.
And she's gonna watch this today,
and I am just gonna let her know that that is all Amber's fault.
-It is Amber's fault. -100%.
-Mommy, Lacey did it. I didn't do it!
-Mom, I didn't -- Save me.
-What will she not like about it, though?
-Specifically the stories about her.
-Right. Okay. -Now, Mom is, like, super-smart.
She skipped second grade and seventh grade.
She freakin' is a little genius, but...
And she's handled everything with grace.
But we chose... -The Disneyland story.
We're gonna -- I'm gonna be grounded.
-We chose some bad stories. -And I'm a grown woman.
-Now, what happened? Tell us about the Disneyland story.
-No! -No! I refuse.
-You got to buy the book? -Buy the book.
-Ah, you got to buy the book
if you want to hear about my mommy at Disneyland.
-One nice thing that came out --
Again, I should say, like, it's interesting to me
that you think she will not like it
because a lot of nice things --
Your parents brought home books. Right?
They really wanted their kids to be readers,
and the kind of books they brought home were often --
would lead to new hobbies, new passions.
-Yeah. Down the street from us was a book auction.
So every first Sunday of the month,
they would go and just bid on a lot of books,
which is just a big box of books,
so they would be like, okay,
we have Stephen King's "It"
and "Moby Dick" and blah, blah, blah.
But then when you got the book home,
there was 50 books in there.
So then, like, at the bottom is, like, "Intro to Sailing"
and stuff.
And so anything -- It just built up quite the library.
So any hobby you could think of, we already had a book about it.
Like, I ended up doing mosaics
and learning Sign Language.
-I was all about gems and rocks.
-Gems and rocks.
-Yeah, just because this thing was down the street.
It's in the house. It's the '80s.
We are bored.
-[ Laughs ] Gems and rocks.
Hey, before we go, it's been so lovely
to have you both out together, but let's wish Amber --
'Cause Amber doesn't get enough attention, Lacey.
I do want to make sure we pay --
-I understand. -Amber's birthday on Saturday.
Happy birthday, Amber!
-Whoo! Happy birthday!
-I turned 27!
-And you're her older sister by a year.
-♪ Twenty eight ♪
-Oh, my God. Thank you guys both for being here.
This book is -- I want to stress how very funny it is.
-[ Giggling ] -Oh, yeah. This is pointless.
It's just in one ear...
If she thinks she's on her single,
she doesn't listen to a word I say.
"You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey"
is available tomorrow wherever you buy your books,
but, please, support local and independent bookstores.
We'll be right back with the music of Future Islands.