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Tressie McMillan Cottom

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November 2011

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https://www.goodreads.com/tressiemcphd

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Tressie McMillan Cottom has been called "a master of metaphor" (Soraya McDonald), one of "America's most bracing thinkers on race, gender, and capitalism of our time" (Rebecca Traister) and "one of the finest public intellectuals writing today" (Roxane Gay). McMillan Cottom centers black women in uncommonly incisive analysis of social problems. She lives in Richmond, Virginia where she is an associate professor of sociology. ...more

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Tressie McMillan Cottom You're going to kill me but I've never really had writer's block. I have had times when I did not write. I have had times when I could not write. But …moreYou're going to kill me but I've never really had writer's block. I have had times when I did not write. I have had times when I could not write. But I always experience these times as "oh I must need to read more" and not writer's block. More personally, the only time I've been totally unable to write is when I tried an anti-depressant. I took it three days, couldn't write, and promptly called the doctor and told him if I wasn't crazy when I started that not being able to write was guaranteed to make me mad. I stopped cold turkey. Never do that, by the way. But I will choose to feel the depths of hell over being unable to write. I am fortunate that's not a real choice I've ever had to make. I am deeply empathetic to those for whom it's a real choice.

Shorter all this: I can almost always write and when I can't write easily I assume it means I haven't read enough. Rinse. Repeat. (less)

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Tressie McMillan Cottom I did not want to write this book! I kept waiting for someone else, anyone else to write this book and make this argument. I wanted only to *cite* som…moreI did not want to write this book! I kept waiting for someone else, anyone else to write this book and make this argument. I wanted only to *cite* something like this book. The connections seemed to be right there. I figured that if I could see them so clearly then they must not be valuable or very smart. I figured someone smarter than me had noticed those connections and chosen not to write about them because they were too smart to do it.

In the end, my editor convinced me that the story was meaningful. And, my friends convinced me that no one else was ever going to get around to writing it. I was afraid no one would write it because people simply did not care about the people in for-profit colleges and couldn't truly see them. That made me angry. And nothing gets me writing better, faster, and more reliably than being pissed off at some injustice. (less)

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Tressie McMillan Cottom’s books

Average rating: 4.42 · 19,416 ratings · 2,508 reviews · 12 distinct works • Similar authors

	Thick: And Other Essays 4.44 avg rating — 17,606 ratings — published 2019 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy 4.26 avg rating — 1,458 ratings — published 2015 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman (Editor), Tressie McMillan Cottom (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 4.29 avg rating — 322 ratings — published 2022 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification by Randall Collins (Goodreads Author), Tressie McMillan Cottom (Goodreads Author) (Foreword), Mitchell L. Stevens (Foreword) 3.91 avg rating — 47 ratings — published 1979	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dying to be Competent 4.11 avg rating — 9 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	BOUND: Blogging on Gender, Race, and Culture: www.tressiemc.com 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Girl 6 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lower Ed by Tressie McMillan Cottom (September 01,2016) it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	For-Profit Universities: The Shifting Landscape of Marketized Higher Education by Tressie McMillan Cottom (Goodreads Author) (editor), William A Darity (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	For-Profit Universities: The Shifting Landscape of Marketized Higher Education 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Tressie McMillan Cottom…

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Tressie McMillan Cottom's Blog

Deviance and Hallmark Christmas Movies

The title is click-bait.

If you follow me on That Social Media site you know two things about me: I love Dolly Parton and I am mad for Hallmark Christmas movies. As the former goes without saying, I will say a bit more about latter.

Hallmark Christmas movies are a genre. They are a phenomenon. I’m a sociologist. I am sold just on those two things alone.

I also grew up on Harlequin romance novels. The

Those of us who like to give books as holiday gifts have the same problem every year: People are weird. Well, people are very…specific is...

Tressie is Currently Reading

Tressie is currently reading

In the Face of Inequality: How Black Colleges Adapt

by Melissa E. Wooten

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Dec 29, 2016 08:47PM

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The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life

by Anu Partanen (Goodreads Author)

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Dec 16, 2016 10:27AM

Quotes by Tressie McMillan Cottom (?)

“Beauty is not good capital. I compounds the oppression of gender. It constrains those who identify as women against their will. It costs money and demands money. It colonizes. It hurts. It is painful. It can never be fully satisfied. It is not useful for human flourishing. Beauty is, like all capital, merely valuable.”
― Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays

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“They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that ugly is as ugly does. Both are lies. Ugly is everything done to you in the name of beauty. Knowing the difference is part of getting free.”
― Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays

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“Smart is only a construct of correspondence, between one’s abilities, one’s environment, and one’s moment in history.”
― Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays

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