Nonfiction: Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom

It seems that at least once a year I cover a book about race that makes a fair amount of people uncomfortable, for one reason or another, but mostly the massively obvious one. I believe this year's honor will go to Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom. As a writer, professor, professional thinker, and acclaimed author, Cottom now shifts gears from her previous book about the troubling rise of for-profit universities, to writing about those things that make people uncomfortable, namely issues of race, gender, class, and the always squirm-inducing political climate. You have been warned.

Genre, Themes, History: Included in Thick is a collection of essays that Cottom had written and published previously, but had either revised or added to them for the publication of this book. There are a total of eight essays, with the first one, titled "Thick," mostly serving as an introduction of sorts. What follows are Cottom's thoughts on beauty and who even gets to enjoy that label; the issue of so-called competency; the importance of black people knowing their whites; why being black in America is not enough; the desire to be fabulous; black girlhood; and Cottom's desire to see just one full-time professional black female opinion writer at a major publication. And while Cottom does pull from her own personal experience and history as a black woman who grew up in the south, and even lived for a time in the north, and ultimately earned a Ph.D. and has made a living out of writing about these subjects, the topics in the essays are also well-researched and thoroughly explored. 

My Verdict: The book is an easy read in the sense that it is not long and the essays are so engaging that the pages go by quickly. But it is not an easy read because of the subject matter, as well as the almost brutal honesty with which Cottom talks about these issues. What especially stuck with me is the almost (and often) contradictory terms with which the black female is treated. We are expected to be almost superhuman in our strength and our ability to protect, right up until that ability no longer serves the majority, then we are incompetent in our ability to even take care of ourselves. The word beauty is also not to be applied to black women (as far as pop-culture and capitalism are concerned), but that will not stop the beauty industry from attempting to sell us on their version of "attainable" beauty. And black girls can no longer be victims once men have decided they are desirable - if a black girl is desired enough to be sexually assaulted, then she is old enough to be "ready," and somehow cannot possibly be a victim. Read it again, and slowly. It is a problem. And it is heartbreaking. And yet. Cottom is able to proclaim these truths with humor and wit, while still letting you know that she is incredibly serious, and we should be too. 

Favorite Quotes: From "In the Name of Beauty" - "When beauty is white and I am dark, it means that I am more likely to be punished in school, to receive higher sentences for crimes, less likely to marry, and less likely to marry someone with equal or higher economic status. Denying these empirical realities is its own kind of violence, even when our intentions are good. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and ugly is as ugly does. Both are lies. Ugly is everything done to you in the name of beauty. Knowing the difference is part of getting free."

From "Black is Over (or, Special Black)" - "I hate small talk. It is small. Small is for teacups and occasionally for tiny houses. Too much small talk is how a country is given to sociopaths who thrive on shallow chatter to distract their emotional sleight of hand. Talk should be meaningful or kept to a minimum." Testify.  

Recommended Reading: Rebecca Traister's Good and Mad would be an excellent follow-up, as would 2016's All the Single Ladies. And there is also last year's squirm-inducer So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo.