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4.48 AVERAGE
4.48 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Absolute must read that I found browsing through libby. This first-person perspective collection of essays is not only raw but truly captures the essence of writing authentically. Her voice is confident with raw honesty that too many essay collections seem to lack. Discussions of not only race, but beauty standards, medical care, accessibility, and deconstructing the white standard held up by white liberals. Read this and read this now. These are the books we should be reading to decenter the standard that pushes marginalized authenticity and scholarship aside.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I screen-capped a lot of citations and highlighted quite a few passages in some essays, not very many in others. I would like to read a longer version with more analytical detail of “Know your white people.” I’m pretty sure the last seven years have given Cottom plenty to work with.
“The personal essay had become the way that black women writers claim legitimacy in a public discourse that defines itself, in part, by how well it excludes black women. In a modern society, who is allowed to speak with authority is a political act.”
““I just like what I like” is always a capitalist lie. Beauty would be a useless concept for capital if it were only a preference in the purest sense. Capital demands that beauty be coercive. If beauty matters at all to how people perceive you, how institutions treat you, which rules are applied to you, and what choices you can make, then beauty must also be a structure of patterns, institutions, and exchanges that eats your preferences for lunch.”
“There is not a single global, national, or local condition to which black women’s intellectual, spiritual, and emotional intelligences cannot be trusted to bring greater clarity. The 2016 election of Donald Trump joins the rise of nationalist, xenophobic, racist, sexist, and classist demagogues ascending to and consolidating power across the world. If not now, when?”
“The personal essay had become the way that black women writers claim legitimacy in a public discourse that defines itself, in part, by how well it excludes black women. In a modern society, who is allowed to speak with authority is a political act.”
““I just like what I like” is always a capitalist lie. Beauty would be a useless concept for capital if it were only a preference in the purest sense. Capital demands that beauty be coercive. If beauty matters at all to how people perceive you, how institutions treat you, which rules are applied to you, and what choices you can make, then beauty must also be a structure of patterns, institutions, and exchanges that eats your preferences for lunch.”
“There is not a single global, national, or local condition to which black women’s intellectual, spiritual, and emotional intelligences cannot be trusted to bring greater clarity. The 2016 election of Donald Trump joins the rise of nationalist, xenophobic, racist, sexist, and classist demagogues ascending to and consolidating power across the world. If not now, when?”
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Medical trauma
Minor: Rape
informative
Sooooo many truths in this book. Professor McMiIlian-Cottom writes wonderfully about race, class, politics and more. She laid bare the souls of Black women (like me) that makes me feel understood in a way that rarely happens. I've started following her on Twitter and look forward to additional nuggets of wisdom.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced