Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom

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Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom (The New Press, 2019)

By Metta Lash, Librarian, Germantown Campus

In the paper “Thick ethnographic description and thin models of complexity”, social scientists Roger Gomm and Martyn Hammersley provide an explanation of what they call “thick” description. Thick description captures the complexity of lived experiences, trying to extract both patterns and meaning. They write:

‘Thick’ ethnography provides readers with a proxy experience for living in another culture such that they engage with its richness, pick up the threads, and do what members do – which is to generate new meanings from the same cultural repertoire, transforming the repertoire the while.”

Tressie McMillan Cottom uses this excerpt to frame the first chapter, “Thick”, of her most recent collection of essays, also titled Thick. In it, she embraces the personal richness of her experiences and generates new meaning in a way that is keenly intelligent and humor filled. Still, she readily acknowledges poignant moments while not dwelling on them. Her writing style is dense but approachable, interweaving anecdote with empiricism and cultural theory.

Dr. Cottom offers appraisals of race, feminism, beauty, and culture, which is a lot to tackle in one collection. At the heart of her essays are her experiences as a Black woman in America during this particular time. In one of the poignant moments, she asks the question about her grandmother, who she deems far smarter: Why me and not [her], why now and not then? All these essays point to the effects, sometimes devastating, when White culture fails to see the competence and agency of Black women and how that is a work in progress. All eight essays deserve a second reading to capture their intricacy; some demand it.