Thick: And Other Essays

In the winter of 2017, McMillan Cottom causes a Twitter fight because she says that a Black woman should be hired as an opinion writer at a prominent publication. While she notes that it wouldn’t change the larger structural problems in society, she wants it anyway. She uses David Brooks, an opinion writer for the New York Times, as a foil, highlighting some of his more ridiculous essays. Despite her disinterest in Brooks, she has to engage with what he writes because the legitimacy conferred by his status as an opinion writer for the NYT. As an academic, she has to engage with the opinions of writers from the NYT because they set the tone for the cultural conversation: They define what is important and what the discourse is at the moment. She wants a Black woman to be able to be as banal and mundane as Brooks and still be considered legitimate. Many Black women are qualified for this kind of position at prestigious publications. Full-time jobs at elite publications like the New York Times and the Washington Post provide the stability for people to write well and do the research they need to excel.