It's the Little Things: The Everyday Interactions That Get under the Skin of Blacks and Whites - Hardcover

Williams, Lena; Hunter-Gault, Charlayne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151004072 ISBN 13: 9780151004072

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000

Synopsis

A black person is taken aback when a stranger uses his first name. - A white person fails to recognize a black colleague outside the office. - A black executive is followed around a department store and then can't get a taxi to stop for her. - A white person comments in amazement on how articulate an Ivy Leaque professional is-a black Harvard graduate. Despite the progress our country has made since the civil rights movement, we live in separate worlds. Although people of different races work together, go to school together, live in integrated neighborhoods, and have developed long lasting friendships, we're still undeniably divided. Why? Ignorance. In this fast, funny, smart and forthright book, New York Times reporter Lena Williams tells it like it is. Writing from her own experiences and from what she has learned through conducting focus groups of blacks and whites all over the country, Williams opens our eyes to the annoying things we do and explains what they mean and how to avoid them. If you've ever noticed these sights-and especially if you haven't- you'll find It's the Little Things an eye opener, a delight, and an important bridge between our separated cultures.

About this title

About the Author:

Lena Williams is a twenty-five-year veteran of the New York Times. Currently covering sports, she is the senior delegate of the Author's Guild at the New York Times. Her article "It's the Little Things" won the National Association of Black Journalists award for feature writing. She lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

If black Americans are doing better (on a statistical basis) and some commentators downplay the significance of race, why does there remain such interracial tension? New York Times journalist Williams, expanding on a much-talked-about 1997 article, suggests that the problem lies with the "microaggressions" inherent in everyday interactionsAsome intentional, others not. Some examples: the white folk who claim not to see color, Williams notes, often ignore the possibility that blackness can be valued. Meanwhile, no one claims not to see gender. Whites who casually address blacks by their first names don't recognize the long history of demeaning blacks by first-name address. White-run parties at school that don't acknowledge black music leave the black minority uncomfortable. Despite the book's subtitle, this is mostly about black attitudes; white voices are given a chapterAmany say they hate it when blacks turn "innocuous things into a racial guilt trip"Aand Williams and some of her black respondents acknowledge their own episodic racial hostilities. Another chapter gives voice to non-black minorities. Much of this book rings true for the groups interviewedAWilliams's black informants are mostly middle-classA but some of her generalizations seem over the top: for example, that "no respectable black person would ever arrive at a party on time." And sadly, even some examples she cites might be interpreted from opposite directions: is the white who refuses to sit next to a black youth on a two-person subway seat practicing racial hostility, as she suggests, or trying to avoid it? Despite these flaws, Williams's provocative book is sure to stimulate much discussion with its candid depiction of race relations.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0151004072
• ISBN 13: 9780151004072
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256