39 pages • 1 hour read
Tressie Mcmillan CottomA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“Your hair thick, your nose thick, your lips thick, all of you just thick.”
In “Thick,” McMillan Cottom begins with a personal anecdote that takes place at a bar after a period of personal loss. She quotes a man approaching her at the bar to comment on her appearance and uses it as an entry point into a larger discussion about thick description as a method in academic research. This quote exemplifies her method of beginning with a personal experience described in rich detail which is used to explore a larger socio-cultural issue.
“We weren’t killing the personal essay so much as were killing those who used the personal essay to become a problem.”
McMillan Cottom identifies herself as someone who is willing to “become a problem,” or, to challenge Whiteness and how it decides whose voices are valuable and worthy of listening to. McMillan Cottom suggests that criticisms of the personal essay as a genre are a way of minimizing Black women’s authority, as its one of the few genres where women and people of color are considered authorities. When used in a nuanced way, the personal essay is actually a vehicle for larger structural criticisms.
“In a modern society, who is allowed to speak with authority is a political act.”
The perception of authority and how it is denied to Black women is a core concern that runs through McMillan Cottom’s essays. Authority is controlled by Whiteness, which defines who is considered an expert.
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