Thick: And Other Essays

by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Gatekeeping is a complex job of managing boundaries that do not just define others but also define ourselves. Status symbols—silk shells, designer shoes, luxury handbags—become keys to unlock these gates.

You have no idea what you would do if you were poor until you are poor. And not intermittently poor or formerly not-poor, but born poor, expected to be poor, and treated by bureaucracies, gatekeepers, and well-meaning respectability authorities as inherently poor.

When the people we read, even if we only read them to hate them, do not engage black women as thinkers or subjects, we do not feel compelled by our dominant culture to do so either.