5/30/2023 0 Comments Thick cottom![]() McMillan Cottom moves from the finite to the expansive, exacting in her deconstructions of race, class, and gender work in tandem with the sprawling realities that shape policy that governs black bodies in the public square. As a sociologist, she is able to strip away social conventions to interrogate how limiting we view black women. Thick is incisive and heady, cerebral and “black-black,” layered in its storytelling and sharp in its rigor. In these eight essays covering her own pregnancy, beauty, culture of competence, and black girlhood, as well as eviscerating critiques of whiteness in American life, Thick centers black women experiences and asserts black women wisdom. ![]() “We are social issues to be solved, economic problems to be balanced, and emotional baggage to be overcome.” McMillan Cottom situates her personal stories as the lens to delve deeper into social constructions that perpetuate inequities and harm. That is not the same thing as causing problems,” writes McMillan Cottom in Thick. ![]() “Black girls and black women are problems. American society is selective when choosing to recognize the fullness of my humanity-and too often, it chooses to deem my existence a problem. ![]() I don’t fit the projected expectations of what a woman of my size and shade should be. I don’t quite fit the contours of our society: I’m at an age that firmly situates me between boomer and millennial. Too often, I’m led to believe that I don’t belong anywhere. ![]()
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