Thick: And Other Essays

by Tressie McMillan Cottom

The issue was another old one: who can speak legitimately about and for black people in the United States? For the record, there is no answer. At least there is no good answer.

Being a consumer, or not, should not condition your civil rights.

Much as we interrogate what a woman was wearing when she was raped, we look for ways to assign personal responsibility for structural injustices to bodies we collectively do not value.

Why do poor people make stupid, illogical decisions to buy status symbols? For the same reason all but only the most wealthy buy status symbols, I suppose. We want to belong. And not just for the psychic rewards, but belonging to one group at the right time can mean the difference between unemployment and employment, a good job as opposed to a bad job, housing or a shelter, and so on.