Tressie McMillan Cottom Books
Tressie McMillan Cottom is an American sociologist, writer, and professor known for her work on race, education, and inequality. She is a MacArthur Fellow and an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Known for: Thick: And Other Essays
Books by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Thick: And Other Essays
In this collection of essays, sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom explores race, gender, beauty, and power in contemporary America. Blending personal narrative with cultural critique, she examines how Black womanhood is perceived and valued, offering sharp insights into social inequality, identity, and the politics of respectability.
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Thick
Being *thick* is both metaphor and methodology. In this opening essay, I reflect on what it means to exist in a body—and a mind—that refuses reduction. Black women have long been judged by surfaces: our skin, our hair, our tone, our perceived attitude. But thick is the opposite of that. Thick is the...
From Thick: And Other Essays
In the Name of Beauty
Beauty in America is never neutral; it is a currency printed by whiteness. In this essay, I interrogate how the politics of beauty shape Black women’s lives—the expectation that we will perform desirability according to standards that systematically exclude us. Beauty isn’t just about aesthetics; it...
From Thick: And Other Essays
About Tressie McMillan Cottom
Tressie McMillan Cottom is an American sociologist, writer, and professor known for her work on race, education, and inequality. She is a MacArthur Fellow and an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her writing has appeared in major publications such as The Atlanti...
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Tressie McMillan Cottom is an American sociologist, writer, and professor known for her work on race, education, and inequality. She is a MacArthur Fellow and an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her writing has appeared in major publications such as The Atlanti...
Tressie McMillan Cottom is an American sociologist, writer, and professor known for her work on race, education, and inequality. She is a MacArthur Fellow and an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her writing has appeared in major publications such as The Atlantic and The New York Times.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom is an American sociologist, writer, and professor known for her work on race, education, and inequality. She is a MacArthur Fellow and an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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