What do you think?
Rate this book
When They Tell You to Be Good
After immigrating from Jamaica to the United States, Prince Shakur’s family is rocked by the murder of Prince’s biological father in 1995. Behind the murder is a sordid family truth, scripted in the lines of a diary by an outlawed uncle hell-bent on avenging the murder of Prince’s father. As Shakur begins to unravel his family’s secrets, he must navigate the strenuous terrain of conquering one’s inner self while confronting the steeped complexities of the Afro-diaspora.
When They Tell You to Be Good charts Prince Shakur’s political coming of age from closeted queer kid in a Jamaican family to radicalized adult traveler, writer, and anarchist in Obama and Trump’s America. Shakur journeys from France, the Philippines, South Korea, and more to discover the depths of the Black experience, and engages in deep political questions while participating in movements like Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock. By the end, Shakur reckons with his identity, his Jamaican family’s immigration to the US before his birth, and the intergenerational impacts of patriarchal and colonial violence.
A profoundly composed narrative parallel in identity to that of George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue and Eddie S. Glaude Jr.’s Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, Shakur compels the reader to consume the political world of young, Black, queer, and radical millennials today.
When They Tell You to Be Good charts Prince Shakur’s political coming of age from closeted queer kid in a Jamaican family to radicalized adult traveler, writer, and anarchist in Obama and Trump’s America. Shakur journeys from France, the Philippines, South Korea, and more to discover the depths of the Black experience, and engages in deep political questions while participating in movements like Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock. By the end, Shakur reckons with his identity, his Jamaican family’s immigration to the US before his birth, and the intergenerational impacts of patriarchal and colonial violence.
A profoundly composed narrative parallel in identity to that of George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue and Eddie S. Glaude Jr.’s Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, Shakur compels the reader to consume the political world of young, Black, queer, and radical millennials today.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published October 4, 2022
30 people are currently reading
1419 people want to read
About the author
Prince Shakur
5 books46 followersPrince Shakur is a queer, Jamaican-American author, freelance journalist, videomaker, and NY Times recognized organizer. His writings range from op-eds in Teen Vogue to features on the violent impacts of policing and cultural essays that delve into black icons, like Bob Marley or Huey Newton. In 2017, his video series, Two Woke Minds, earned him the Rising Star Grant from GLAAD. As an organizer, he brought Black Lives Matter to his university campus, organized for labor rights in Seattle, disrupted a Bill Clinton speech in 2016, did solidarity work at the US/Mexican border, and organized with Black Queer Intersectional Collective during the height of the George Floyd protests.
His work, whether literary, visual, or grassroots, is stepped in his commitment to black liberation, prison abolition, and queer resilience.
His work, whether literary, visual, or grassroots, is stepped in his commitment to black liberation, prison abolition, and queer resilience.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
December 29, 2022
A 2022 New York Public Library Best Adult book!
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: After immigrating from Jamaica to the United States, Prince Shakur’s family is rocked by the murder of Prince’s biological father in 1995. Behind the murder is a sordid family truth, scripted in the lines of a diary by an outlawed uncle hell-bent on avenging the murder of Prince’s father. As Shakur begins to unravel his family’s secrets, he must navigate the strenuous terrain of conquering one’s inner self while confronting the steeped complexities of the Afro-diaspora.
When They Tell You to Be Good charts Prince Shakur’s political coming of age from closeted queer kid in a Jamaican family to radicalized adult traveler, writer, and anarchist in Obama and Trump’s America. Shakur journeys from France, the Philippines, South Korea, and more to discover the depths of the Black experience, and engages in deep political questions while participating in movements like Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock. By the end, Shakur reckons with his identity, his Jamaican family’s immigration to the US before his birth, and the intergenerational impacts of patriarchal and colonial violence.
A profoundly composed narrative parallel in identity to that of George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue and Eddie S. Glaude Jr.’s Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, Shakur compels the reader to consume the political world of young, Black, queer, and radical millennials today.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Introspection is part and parcel of getting old. But, and this is relatively new to my consciousness, that's because it's part and parcel of the Othering that US/capitalist society perpetuates, perpetrates even, daily. Old people are Othered, queer people are Othered, Black people, Asian people, female people: All are Othered by the depressing, repressive regime of normalizing cis-white male-straightness.
I'm sure that condition suits some people, but it gives me the shuddering horrors. Sounds more like something Cthulhu uses to torment victims than a desirable identity.
Author Shakur decides, early on, that "...if I was going to be lost and swallowed alive out in the world, then I’d at least get something for myself out of it," and he definitely makes good on that promise to himself. He is a generous soul and shares pieces of his journey to living authentically as an out, gay Jamaican-American man. He sees through structures at twenty-seven that took me another decade to understand as designed systems of repression, so of course I'm jealous as well as impressed. In about equal measure.
His mother, the one who chose his father, doesn't really know what to do about her wild, ungovernable son. Of course she sees his dad in him and, as the man was murdered for being his own resistant, wild self, she's got to be scared witless for her baby boy. His gayness seems to her an unnecessary provocation of the people who already hate her son for being. Being Black, being Jamaican, just (when you boil away the froth) being is his unatonable sin, his unwittingly committed crime.
The issues between mother and son don't stop; they are my own favorite moments in the book. After all, I'm old, and I'm thinking about the awful patterns of my own family that I've repeated ad infinitum. Reckoning with family damage will always command my attention. But Author Shakur, decades behind my age and out front of my life experience, is going through his travails for hisownself. That meant I got more of his politics than I, ideally, would've had. Not that I disagree with him! Just that I can already see where this truck is headed and am, therefore, not confident he'll get off voluntarily.
Very true, Author Shakur; but your mother's "don't be gay when you're here" is, in spite of being the antithesis of this truthful moment, excellent survival advice. While the two aren't from the same passage in the book, both represent the passage of Author Prince Shakur from angry kid to dangerously committed-to-action young adult.
What makes this first-ever book from Editor Hanif Abdurraqib less than a five-star read for me is the very thing that makes it a pleasure to read: The digressive and conversational writing of a talented young man. A bit of pruning of dangling participants, mentioned once and never again; a few smoothings of filler description when talking about places he's been to set a scene for us; minor, and understandable lapses from a tyro team. (Authors aren't always the most helpful editors...they already know where their fellow creator is headed, where we-the-readers don't always.)
I'll make a prediction: We will, if we are lucky, hear more from Author Prince Shakur. And it will get better and better. When it starts out this good, that's a wonderful future to look for.
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: After immigrating from Jamaica to the United States, Prince Shakur’s family is rocked by the murder of Prince’s biological father in 1995. Behind the murder is a sordid family truth, scripted in the lines of a diary by an outlawed uncle hell-bent on avenging the murder of Prince’s father. As Shakur begins to unravel his family’s secrets, he must navigate the strenuous terrain of conquering one’s inner self while confronting the steeped complexities of the Afro-diaspora.
When They Tell You to Be Good charts Prince Shakur’s political coming of age from closeted queer kid in a Jamaican family to radicalized adult traveler, writer, and anarchist in Obama and Trump’s America. Shakur journeys from France, the Philippines, South Korea, and more to discover the depths of the Black experience, and engages in deep political questions while participating in movements like Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock. By the end, Shakur reckons with his identity, his Jamaican family’s immigration to the US before his birth, and the intergenerational impacts of patriarchal and colonial violence.
A profoundly composed narrative parallel in identity to that of George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue and Eddie S. Glaude Jr.’s Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, Shakur compels the reader to consume the political world of young, Black, queer, and radical millennials today.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Introspection is part and parcel of getting old. But, and this is relatively new to my consciousness, that's because it's part and parcel of the Othering that US/capitalist society perpetuates, perpetrates even, daily. Old people are Othered, queer people are Othered, Black people, Asian people, female people: All are Othered by the depressing, repressive regime of normalizing cis-white male-straightness.
I'm sure that condition suits some people, but it gives me the shuddering horrors. Sounds more like something Cthulhu uses to torment victims than a desirable identity.
Author Shakur decides, early on, that "...if I was going to be lost and swallowed alive out in the world, then I’d at least get something for myself out of it," and he definitely makes good on that promise to himself. He is a generous soul and shares pieces of his journey to living authentically as an out, gay Jamaican-American man. He sees through structures at twenty-seven that took me another decade to understand as designed systems of repression, so of course I'm jealous as well as impressed. In about equal measure.
His mother, the one who chose his father, doesn't really know what to do about her wild, ungovernable son. Of course she sees his dad in him and, as the man was murdered for being his own resistant, wild self, she's got to be scared witless for her baby boy. His gayness seems to her an unnecessary provocation of the people who already hate her son for being. Being Black, being Jamaican, just (when you boil away the froth) being is his unatonable sin, his unwittingly committed crime.
The issues between mother and son don't stop; they are my own favorite moments in the book. After all, I'm old, and I'm thinking about the awful patterns of my own family that I've repeated ad infinitum. Reckoning with family damage will always command my attention. But Author Shakur, decades behind my age and out front of my life experience, is going through his travails for hisownself. That meant I got more of his politics than I, ideally, would've had. Not that I disagree with him! Just that I can already see where this truck is headed and am, therefore, not confident he'll get off voluntarily.
I realized that taking our history seriously and the fact that we are a part of shaping it is important. If we don’t engage with and protect our history, it will be mutilated or erased.
Very true, Author Shakur; but your mother's "don't be gay when you're here" is, in spite of being the antithesis of this truthful moment, excellent survival advice. While the two aren't from the same passage in the book, both represent the passage of Author Prince Shakur from angry kid to dangerously committed-to-action young adult.
What makes this first-ever book from Editor Hanif Abdurraqib less than a five-star read for me is the very thing that makes it a pleasure to read: The digressive and conversational writing of a talented young man. A bit of pruning of dangling participants, mentioned once and never again; a few smoothings of filler description when talking about places he's been to set a scene for us; minor, and understandable lapses from a tyro team. (Authors aren't always the most helpful editors...they already know where their fellow creator is headed, where we-the-readers don't always.)
I'll make a prediction: We will, if we are lucky, hear more from Author Prince Shakur. And it will get better and better. When it starts out this good, that's a wonderful future to look for.
July 2, 2022
There’s a great story in here, but there is too much in the way for it to shine through. This truly is an unpolished gem, and not in a good way. Chapters would start referencing an incident or person then never return to finish the thought. There are so many people who disappear completely from the narrative after being the touchstone of a vital moment in Prince’s life that it becomes easy to loose any sense of feeling for anyone. A great disappointment.
March 15, 2024
Honored to work with this author at the Wex, so many talented folks from Columbus!! We definitely need more content that amplifies tender masculinity, especially for people of color. If you're interested in the process of community organizing, protest literature, and Black Queer stories, check this memoir out!
February 24, 2023
I had really high hopes for this and I’m walking away feeling disappointed. Not that this is a big deal, because shit happens, but I did notice quite a few grammatical errors throughout the book which was slightly disappointing.
My main issue was that I would read whole sections and be moved or compelled while reading, but then the second I set the book down, none of it had stayed with me or left a lasting impression. I also felt confused because he would name drop people we had never been introduced to out of no where with no context. Additionally, I just felt like he was, to me, not the most likable of narrators. And, I understand saving the final twist for the very end, but the arc of the story felt off because of that fact. It just didn’t work for me.
On the positive side — I thought the fervor with which he wrote about Black childhood and trauma, and how those two realities intersect very early on AND much too quickly for a majority of Black children was very affecting. I also really enjoyed his stories of his traveling. And again, it was impactful for him to expound on the many ways that Black people are not able to move through the world with ease because of anti-blackness and racism and how ingrained into society (and the world at large) it is.
All that being said, I’m not sure this memoir was for me. Both in how I personally feel about it, and also who the intended audience for this memoir is. I think this could be super impactful and helpful for others and for that, I’m happy it exists. I gave it 3 stars.
My main issue was that I would read whole sections and be moved or compelled while reading, but then the second I set the book down, none of it had stayed with me or left a lasting impression. I also felt confused because he would name drop people we had never been introduced to out of no where with no context. Additionally, I just felt like he was, to me, not the most likable of narrators. And, I understand saving the final twist for the very end, but the arc of the story felt off because of that fact. It just didn’t work for me.
On the positive side — I thought the fervor with which he wrote about Black childhood and trauma, and how those two realities intersect very early on AND much too quickly for a majority of Black children was very affecting. I also really enjoyed his stories of his traveling. And again, it was impactful for him to expound on the many ways that Black people are not able to move through the world with ease because of anti-blackness and racism and how ingrained into society (and the world at large) it is.
All that being said, I’m not sure this memoir was for me. Both in how I personally feel about it, and also who the intended audience for this memoir is. I think this could be super impactful and helpful for others and for that, I’m happy it exists. I gave it 3 stars.
August 31, 2022
I've been trying to come up with the right words to say about "When They Tell You To Be Good: A Memoir" by Prince Shakur.
The first thing that comes to mind is to tell you all to remember the name Prince Shakur, because this book felt like the birth of an emerging voice that I feel like we are going to hear so much more from, and we are all lucky for it.
While reading this very open memoir, it occurred to me how we normally don't get to hear from such a young perspective, which is a disservice to us. Having said that, don't discount his age. Shakur has lived more life than many of us, and has so much to share.
There are social issues in this book that need to be talked about, and I hope this book opens further discussion.
What spoke to me most was Shakur's coming of age story. Growing up black and queer in a Jamaican family in this current America. Shakur does this with a frankness and candidness that surprises me at times with how unflinching he is in his telling.
Startling family secrets abouy his father's murder and an uncle that wanted to avenge it. I don't want to give anything away here.
Are you getting the impression that I want you all to go out and read this? Because I do.
The first thing that comes to mind is to tell you all to remember the name Prince Shakur, because this book felt like the birth of an emerging voice that I feel like we are going to hear so much more from, and we are all lucky for it.
While reading this very open memoir, it occurred to me how we normally don't get to hear from such a young perspective, which is a disservice to us. Having said that, don't discount his age. Shakur has lived more life than many of us, and has so much to share.
There are social issues in this book that need to be talked about, and I hope this book opens further discussion.
What spoke to me most was Shakur's coming of age story. Growing up black and queer in a Jamaican family in this current America. Shakur does this with a frankness and candidness that surprises me at times with how unflinching he is in his telling.
Startling family secrets abouy his father's murder and an uncle that wanted to avenge it. I don't want to give anything away here.
Are you getting the impression that I want you all to go out and read this? Because I do.
October 3, 2022
The first acquisition of writer-turned-editor, Hanif Abdurraqib, at Tin House, Shakur’s searing memoir chronicles his radicalization as a closeted queer teen in Jamaica and eventual immigrant to the US. The work centers on the murder of Skaur’s father, but grows and spirals to encompass so much more—reckoning with identity, intergenerational trauma and much larger political questions.
I included this title in my summer/fall preview for Book & Film Globe: https://bookandfilmglobe.com/fiction/...
I included this title in my summer/fall preview for Book & Film Globe: https://bookandfilmglobe.com/fiction/...
June 24, 2025
4.5:
Wow. So much in here. Very beautifully written and poetic. A little too relatable at times. Heart wrenching. Delightful. Inspiring! I got a little lost in the timelines at first, which is what left it at a 4.5. Upon reread, it’ll probably go to a 5 star for me.
Now, I wanna sign up for a bunch of writing workshops and travel abroad UGHHHH!!!!
Wow. So much in here. Very beautifully written and poetic. A little too relatable at times. Heart wrenching. Delightful. Inspiring! I got a little lost in the timelines at first, which is what left it at a 4.5. Upon reread, it’ll probably go to a 5 star for me.
Now, I wanna sign up for a bunch of writing workshops and travel abroad UGHHHH!!!!
July 9, 2023
I feel unkind doing an unserious review on this, as it pertains to a non-fictitious recounting of someone's life. That being said: I did not entirely enjoy the writing of this memoir. I respect it's authenticity to the author, but it made his messages less impactful. Nonetheless, this book was a unique insight into political America, and the fundamentally inhumane ways it reckons with minority groups.
July 13, 2023
Shakur is a good writer and many parts of this memoir shine, but it was hard to follow due to the jumping around through time and place. There are also a large number of different people, and it became hard to keep track of them and their importance.
August 14, 2023
I guess this is what you get when you write a memoir before the age of 30.
December 31, 2022
"To be Black is to weather pain,” Prince Shakur declares in his new book, When They Tell You to Be Good: A Memoir.
He continues: “Our families must break some part of us to make us less breakable when the world, hungry for Black flesh, tries to break us too.”
In this description, Shakur not only encapsulates the pain he has felt from within his own family, but also the continued shattering of all Black Americans’ safety every time they hear about another needless murder of one of their own.
Read the rest of my review in Hippocampus Magazine: https://hippocampusmagazine.com/2022/...
He continues: “Our families must break some part of us to make us less breakable when the world, hungry for Black flesh, tries to break us too.”
In this description, Shakur not only encapsulates the pain he has felt from within his own family, but also the continued shattering of all Black Americans’ safety every time they hear about another needless murder of one of their own.
Read the rest of my review in Hippocampus Magazine: https://hippocampusmagazine.com/2022/...
February 28, 2023
Some truly beautiful passages that are filled with raw emotion. There isn't a straight linear thread throughout the story which gets tangled at times but still there's enough heart to carry you along.
August 18, 2024
Like some of the other reviews said - the book is a bit all over the place at times and hard to keep a timeline straight, but I still enjoyed a lot of Prince’s stories and hearing his perspective on the world
August 31, 2023
I didnt love the order of this and I guess that impacted my enjoyment of it. But how does someone enjoy someone’s life and struggle so I don’t know the words for it. I was drawn to it because it had Hanif Abdurraqib’s stamp of approval.
April 10, 2024
very disjointed which made this sometimes difficult to follow & a bit confusing… it isn’t chronological at all, which i think can still be done well, but it wasn’t in this case. i did enjoy the little stories tho and it did make me emotional! some really beautiful stuff in here i just think it needs to be organized a bit better
September 28, 2023
A very candid and raw memoir of a gay Jamaican-American navigating his life and the absence of his father. I really loved Shakur’s writing but at moments the timeline seemed too sporadic and took away from the story itself. Generally though it’s a really beautiful novel.
October 30, 2022
There's so much to be fascinated with: dimension, rotation, illumination. Here's one of the core truths:
"Even though I was terrified, I turned to my journal with shaky hands and a dry throat. I wrote the truth for the first time in code, '9. 1, 13. 7, 1, 25.' I eventually found the courage to write, 'I am gay and this is going to explode my world.' I realized that choosing to love myself was not the paramount decision. The crux was how committed to self-love I was, how I defined it, and how I defended it."I posted some thoughts about this book, including choosing to be incompatible with the world. (No paywall. I do not make money from this article. One way for me to become less compatible with the world.)
November 26, 2022
Thanks to Tin House for another provocative read!
So many barricades to break through.
I have lived a privilege life. Shakur has dealt and continues to deal with so many. He has persevered and reflect on the myriad of obstacles he has faced.
I feel that Shakur had difficulty staying on point and his writing was disjointed. He had so many events to deal with that it was problematic to stay with one before going on to another.
However, even with my concerns, the book is riveting, harsh and direct as it should be. Not an easy read, but an important one, it forces the reader to face injustices and intolerances.
So many barricades to break through.
I have lived a privilege life. Shakur has dealt and continues to deal with so many. He has persevered and reflect on the myriad of obstacles he has faced.
I feel that Shakur had difficulty staying on point and his writing was disjointed. He had so many events to deal with that it was problematic to stay with one before going on to another.
However, even with my concerns, the book is riveting, harsh and direct as it should be. Not an easy read, but an important one, it forces the reader to face injustices and intolerances.
March 30, 2022
Truly a inspirational masterpiece! This book dives deep into what holds relationships together and redefines what family is and the secrets that can entangle. This memoir truly encapsulated what it feels like growing up from being a Teenager to becoming a man and how these steps are sometimes the same ones our parents have taken at one point in their life.
December 8, 2022
I was excited for this one but found the book's structure borderline incoherent. Also, I understand the point is not being "good" like they tell you to be, but the author's tone felt pompous and dismissive of just about everybody other than him.
October 9, 2022
Colorful language set among stark and often bleak circumstances make a stunning debut a read to be cherished and studied for years to come. Illuminative family dynamics and a penchant for radicalism enable his effort to be truly free, Prince Shakur is many things: writer, organizer, queer, and black.
“Writing became the elixir to many of my mental wounds,” says Shakur, whose mother, early on tells him about the horrible things placed in your path to test your faith.
But Shakur’s mother only likes “playing the part of a mother,” and although Shakur doesn’t necessarily take pride in setting fires to his mother’s illusions, “which surrounded her like walls,” she is forever unable to see his pain.
We are raised on the notion that family can save us, so it hurts when we cannot save them.
“I decided that if I was going to be lost and swallowed alive out in the world, then I’d at least get something for myself out of it.”
Were it to focus only on its mother issues, When They Tell You To Be Good would be a great read if it were to stop there; but Shakur has so much to say in his young life, so many experiences rendered with such an introspective and caring eye. “But I was wrong in the sense that when we are born, we are born into someone else’s history, someone else’s memory,” suffering, whether received or caused, becomes a qualification for being a man.
Where does a black boy go when he is offered less than his spirit needs?
And what does he become?
To be black however, is to weather pain.
Shakur’s uncles were shot and killed. His father presumably met the same fate and Shakur remains haunted throughout much of this memoir that reads like a novel - an undoing, an unraveling.
“Don’t be gay while you’re here. Please,” his mother intones.
His white classmates lament “How could you be gay if you haven’t seen Grease yet?”
Among the other, their coming out stories “didn’t sound like cracked sidewalks on the eastside of Cleveland, doing prison visits in high school, or unpacking the influence of colonialism on Jamaican culture.”
Shakur comes to realize “we can exist to fulfill a role, but we can’t fully be ourselves,” and often feels like he’s carrying this “whole crowd of people, whose world I want to change, whose world I hope would change if they came with me.”
When they tell you to be good, to be well-mannered, and to follow the rules - this is how America will let you live.
They do not tell you however, that it is the silence that holds the secret.
“Writing became the elixir to many of my mental wounds,” says Shakur, whose mother, early on tells him about the horrible things placed in your path to test your faith.
But Shakur’s mother only likes “playing the part of a mother,” and although Shakur doesn’t necessarily take pride in setting fires to his mother’s illusions, “which surrounded her like walls,” she is forever unable to see his pain.
We are raised on the notion that family can save us, so it hurts when we cannot save them.
“I decided that if I was going to be lost and swallowed alive out in the world, then I’d at least get something for myself out of it.”
Were it to focus only on its mother issues, When They Tell You To Be Good would be a great read if it were to stop there; but Shakur has so much to say in his young life, so many experiences rendered with such an introspective and caring eye. “But I was wrong in the sense that when we are born, we are born into someone else’s history, someone else’s memory,” suffering, whether received or caused, becomes a qualification for being a man.
Where does a black boy go when he is offered less than his spirit needs?
And what does he become?
To be black however, is to weather pain.
Shakur’s uncles were shot and killed. His father presumably met the same fate and Shakur remains haunted throughout much of this memoir that reads like a novel - an undoing, an unraveling.
“Don’t be gay while you’re here. Please,” his mother intones.
His white classmates lament “How could you be gay if you haven’t seen Grease yet?”
Among the other, their coming out stories “didn’t sound like cracked sidewalks on the eastside of Cleveland, doing prison visits in high school, or unpacking the influence of colonialism on Jamaican culture.”
Shakur comes to realize “we can exist to fulfill a role, but we can’t fully be ourselves,” and often feels like he’s carrying this “whole crowd of people, whose world I want to change, whose world I hope would change if they came with me.”
When they tell you to be good, to be well-mannered, and to follow the rules - this is how America will let you live.
They do not tell you however, that it is the silence that holds the secret.
March 23, 2023
“Where does a Black boy go when he is offered less than his spirit needs? And what does he become? Outlaw, revolutionary, none, or both. Whatever I became, I would have to start as a traveler on the roadside of America, fading away into oblivion in someone else’s rearview mirror.” Prince Shakur.
Prince is a queer, Jamaican American author, essayist, podcaster and an activist. Prince showed up and showed out in his stellar coming of age memoir, When They Tell You To Be Good. His passion as an activist most certainly was expressed throughout his life as he took a stance on many personal, family history and socio-political issues. I embraced his brutal honesty, vulnerability and his endearing adventurous spirit as he fought for justice for LGBTQIA+ / BIPOC both on American and international soil. He was very transient which I think gave birth to growth, possibility, reorienting himself, exposure to different world views and cultures all affording him the opportunity to demystify stereotypes.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. “ James Baldwin.
Following closely on the heels of those who came before him paving the way (James Baldwin, bell hooks) he bravely embraces his role and utilizes his voice to continue the much-needed fight.
“By now I’d learned the importance of being incompatible with a world that aimed to destroy you.”
Prince mentions a very poignant statement that erasure is also a form of violence. When difficult situations arise and aren’t confronted in the appropriate setting, these experiences continue to fester negatively and can also be stigmatized. This Global Citizen - a Black Queer man, encountered political and structural racist issues worldwide. Prince dove into very personal territory, breaking the myth of homosexual hypersexuality by sharing his coming out story through his sexual experiences / love interests as a teenager into adulthood. This redefined one’s perspectives on how we view masculinity through embracing body autonomy, virginity, consent and desire.
This book is reminiscent of Assata with regards to their experiences on the front lines. This memoir will educate you politically, culturally and what it means to navigate the world as a Queer Black man. Prince, like many others before him has shown us how the imagination and writing can be used as a political tool of liberation.
You can follow Prince Shakur on his podcast, The Creative Hour.
Moderated on ThisBrowneGirlReads Facebook page on 12/02/2022. You can watch the replay there.
Prince is a queer, Jamaican American author, essayist, podcaster and an activist. Prince showed up and showed out in his stellar coming of age memoir, When They Tell You To Be Good. His passion as an activist most certainly was expressed throughout his life as he took a stance on many personal, family history and socio-political issues. I embraced his brutal honesty, vulnerability and his endearing adventurous spirit as he fought for justice for LGBTQIA+ / BIPOC both on American and international soil. He was very transient which I think gave birth to growth, possibility, reorienting himself, exposure to different world views and cultures all affording him the opportunity to demystify stereotypes.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. “ James Baldwin.
Following closely on the heels of those who came before him paving the way (James Baldwin, bell hooks) he bravely embraces his role and utilizes his voice to continue the much-needed fight.
“By now I’d learned the importance of being incompatible with a world that aimed to destroy you.”
Prince mentions a very poignant statement that erasure is also a form of violence. When difficult situations arise and aren’t confronted in the appropriate setting, these experiences continue to fester negatively and can also be stigmatized. This Global Citizen - a Black Queer man, encountered political and structural racist issues worldwide. Prince dove into very personal territory, breaking the myth of homosexual hypersexuality by sharing his coming out story through his sexual experiences / love interests as a teenager into adulthood. This redefined one’s perspectives on how we view masculinity through embracing body autonomy, virginity, consent and desire.
This book is reminiscent of Assata with regards to their experiences on the front lines. This memoir will educate you politically, culturally and what it means to navigate the world as a Queer Black man. Prince, like many others before him has shown us how the imagination and writing can be used as a political tool of liberation.
You can follow Prince Shakur on his podcast, The Creative Hour.
Moderated on ThisBrowneGirlReads Facebook page on 12/02/2022. You can watch the replay there.
October 19, 2022
"If you searched for America or asked the hard questions, America could rear its sun-bleached head, a forever duppy [a malevolent spirit or wraith] playing God and plotting death."
"I realized that taking our history seriously and the fact that we are a part of shaping it is important. If we don’t engage with and protect our history, it will be mutilated or erased."
When They Tell You To Be Good is a sharp, stirring and incisive. Prince Shakur recounts his life as a Black, gay American youth of Jamaican descent, his search for truths about his family, his country and the truth of who he is. It’s a remarkable account of a sensitive young man dealing with the horrors of America (I would say “American racism” but really the two are identical and inseparable), homophobia, and toxic masculinity. It’s a raw, direct, no-holds barred story, and it’s riveting.
I highlighted so many passages and incisive sentences that my ebook version wouldn’t let me anymore. I’ve written a lot of them down in the note app I use to keep track of my reading.
A note on the style: the writing is conversational and, like conversations, sometimes feels like it wanders from place to place and from one year to the next. Some of his metaphors are unconventional, and he clearly has his own idiosyncratic way of thinking. But Shakur weaves it all together, and it’s well worth your time.
"I realized that taking our history seriously and the fact that we are a part of shaping it is important. If we don’t engage with and protect our history, it will be mutilated or erased."
When They Tell You To Be Good is a sharp, stirring and incisive. Prince Shakur recounts his life as a Black, gay American youth of Jamaican descent, his search for truths about his family, his country and the truth of who he is. It’s a remarkable account of a sensitive young man dealing with the horrors of America (I would say “American racism” but really the two are identical and inseparable), homophobia, and toxic masculinity. It’s a raw, direct, no-holds barred story, and it’s riveting.
I highlighted so many passages and incisive sentences that my ebook version wouldn’t let me anymore. I’ve written a lot of them down in the note app I use to keep track of my reading.
A note on the style: the writing is conversational and, like conversations, sometimes feels like it wanders from place to place and from one year to the next. Some of his metaphors are unconventional, and he clearly has his own idiosyncratic way of thinking. But Shakur weaves it all together, and it’s well worth your time.
January 12, 2023
" We must search and question to find meaning. What we are handed is not always what we must take"
After coming to the US from Jamaica, Prince Shakur confronts what happens to others in Jamaica: his father is killed. This one incident in 1995 colors his world and sets the stage for what is reflected as an intinerant life: a smart kid that gets bullied. A young black man seen as an oddity in other countries. A queer black man trying to find his way.
And I believe, he has found it despite his upbringing in the heterosexual world that is his family: of the homophobia of his mother who seems to rather have had an angry retalitory son over a gay one; of the circle she turns with who try to scold, pray and argue "the gay away" and even his compatriots as he travels who watch him get "singled out" because of his skin, his age and hiscompassion fueled by his heros- the ones he found in books- even if he did what they would: stand up against the -isms of this world.
I have to admilt, I'm a white elder. I too stood up in my time so this story resonated with me. I hope it speaks to others. Question is, will they listen? Highly Recommended 5/5
After coming to the US from Jamaica, Prince Shakur confronts what happens to others in Jamaica: his father is killed. This one incident in 1995 colors his world and sets the stage for what is reflected as an intinerant life: a smart kid that gets bullied. A young black man seen as an oddity in other countries. A queer black man trying to find his way.
And I believe, he has found it despite his upbringing in the heterosexual world that is his family: of the homophobia of his mother who seems to rather have had an angry retalitory son over a gay one; of the circle she turns with who try to scold, pray and argue "the gay away" and even his compatriots as he travels who watch him get "singled out" because of his skin, his age and hiscompassion fueled by his heros- the ones he found in books- even if he did what they would: stand up against the -isms of this world.
I have to admilt, I'm a white elder. I too stood up in my time so this story resonated with me. I hope it speaks to others. Question is, will they listen? Highly Recommended 5/5
August 22, 2023
Someday this might be a great writer and this early book, one of those dug out because he wrote this back when... mostly, it's indulgent and disjointed. He has a right to be angry and be young and... but overall this is not well organized. He is highly critical and simultaneously blind to his own shortcomings as a performative spectator in demonstrations and crises.
It's definitely YA, because someone younger would be impressed by the travel and quotes from various sources (no footnotes or index provided), but it reads like a work in progress that still needs a lot more editing and a sense of purpose.
24 n word
45 to the her white (typo)
90 looked after as twenty-two (typo)
95 held out of his hand (typo)
143 I was a thirteen year old puppet on massive, shit-stained strings (this is a jarring example of imagery that has no follow up in an anecdote that is not in order after you have jumped around the globe for a few chapters).
It's definitely YA, because someone younger would be impressed by the travel and quotes from various sources (no footnotes or index provided), but it reads like a work in progress that still needs a lot more editing and a sense of purpose.
24 n word
45 to the her white (typo)
90 looked after as twenty-two (typo)
95 held out of his hand (typo)
143 I was a thirteen year old puppet on massive, shit-stained strings (this is a jarring example of imagery that has no follow up in an anecdote that is not in order after you have jumped around the globe for a few chapters).
November 10, 2024
Ohhhh I’m stunned, this is one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read.
Prince Shakur recounts his childhood as a gay Black boy raised by a single mother who immigrated from Jamaica to Cleveland. He grapples with decades-long family violence and trauma, a homophobic mom, and feelings of acceptance and exclusion as he gets involved in activism in predominately white spaces.
This memoir is so vulnerable, honest, and thoughtful. I loved reading about all the moments where Shakur finds love and joy through travel, new friendships, early queer relationships, and in his own writing practice.
Definitely recommend if you like Kiese Laymon, Hanif Abdurraquib, or Ocean Vuong.
Thank you Michael for the rec!
Prince Shakur recounts his childhood as a gay Black boy raised by a single mother who immigrated from Jamaica to Cleveland. He grapples with decades-long family violence and trauma, a homophobic mom, and feelings of acceptance and exclusion as he gets involved in activism in predominately white spaces.
This memoir is so vulnerable, honest, and thoughtful. I loved reading about all the moments where Shakur finds love and joy through travel, new friendships, early queer relationships, and in his own writing practice.
Definitely recommend if you like Kiese Laymon, Hanif Abdurraquib, or Ocean Vuong.
Thank you Michael for the rec!
July 15, 2023
Requested an ARC of this book as I’m a big fan of memoirs. However, I pretty quickly determined that this one was not for me. Taking almost seven months to finish this is a good indication of how this book failed to sustain my interest. There were some great lines and a lot of intriguing concepts/stories discussed. However, both the ideas and timeline felt unfocused, leaving me to fill in blanks or just distancing me from the story. Lots of respect for Shakur as a person and an activist but could not bump up the star rating for this one
December 14, 2022
This book dives deep into the masculine psyche and makes a lot of uncomfortable observations about it.
The author references bell hooks and he clearly embodies a lot of her work in his approach to a kinder, more liberated masculinity.
Some of his stories are heartbreaking, but he ends on an note of realistic triumph that made this a much more inspiring memoir than anything I’ve read recently.
This dude gets it. One of my favorite books of the year.
The author references bell hooks and he clearly embodies a lot of her work in his approach to a kinder, more liberated masculinity.
Some of his stories are heartbreaking, but he ends on an note of realistic triumph that made this a much more inspiring memoir than anything I’ve read recently.
This dude gets it. One of my favorite books of the year.
January 16, 2023
Good first attempt
Insight into someone who lives on the edge but is also haunted by expectations from the past. A lot of movement here between people, places, and emotions. Many passages left me wondering what emotions and lessons learned he was trying to articulate: he took us 75% there and then stopped as if he hadn't yet wholly figured it out, or was stitching together a narrative still waiting to be lived. I think his next memoir will be more complete.
Insight into someone who lives on the edge but is also haunted by expectations from the past. A lot of movement here between people, places, and emotions. Many passages left me wondering what emotions and lessons learned he was trying to articulate: he took us 75% there and then stopped as if he hadn't yet wholly figured it out, or was stitching together a narrative still waiting to be lived. I think his next memoir will be more complete.
March 26, 2024
A fearless voice of self-discovery. Articulate and passionate, Prince Shakur tells his experience as a queer black in all the locales he inhabits. The tricky emotional landscape of the inescapable world of family is explored brilliantly. I don't know how to rate this essay, but I loved it; I related to him, his observations, his emotional journey. Not that he needs my approval. I'm white, forever unable to be in his skin.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews