Black Girl/White GirlFifteen years ago, in 1975, Genna Hewett-Meade's college roommate died a mysterious, violent, terrible death. Minette Swift had been a fiercely individualistic scholarship student, an assertive—even prickly—personality, and one of the few black girls at an exclusive women's liberal arts college near Philadelphia. By contrast, Genna was a quiet, self-effacing teenager from a privileged upper-class home, self-consciously struggling to make amends for her own elite upbringing. When, partway through their freshman year, Minette suddenly fell victim to an increasing torrent of racist harassment and vicious slurs—from within the apparent safety of their tolerant, "enlightened" campus—Genna felt it her duty to protect her roommate at all costs. Now, as Genna reconstructs the months, weeks, and hours leading up to Minette's tragic death, she is also forced to confront her own identity within the social framework of that time. Her father was a prominent civil defense lawyer whose radical politics—including defending anti-war terrorists wanted by the FBI—would deeply affect his daughter's outlook on life, and later challenge her deepest beliefs about social obligation in a morally gray world. Black Girl / White Girl is a searing double portrait of "black" and "white," of race and civil rights in post-Vietnam America, captured by one of the most important literary voices of our time. |
From inside the book
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... Minette seemed frightened, wary. She must have heard my question and must have noticed me standing only a few feet away but she ignored me, staring and blinking up at the window in the way of a stubborn child. Minette ... laughing, as if the ...
... Minette had never asked. For a while, I don't think she'd even remembered my ... Minette so little observed me, she'd mistaken another red-haired girl in Haven ... laugh: “ 'Course, I am grateful. My, yes.” Almost, Minette winked. Yet in ...
... Minette had been wearing one of her starched, dazzling-white, long-sleeved cotton blouses with a gold cross at her ... laughed, as if in rebuke of my response, but perhaps it was a playful sort of rebuke, which I could not decode. As if we ...
... Minette snorted with laughter, I tried to join her, not knowing if this was the right response. For wasn't I white ... laughed: “Yah. White bullshit.” I laughed with Minette, I think I laughed. I wasn't sure what I was laughing at, but I ...
Contents
Section 25 | 168 |
Section 26 | 176 |
Section 27 | 184 |
Section 28 | 185 |
Section 29 | 186 |
Section 30 | 187 |
Section 31 | 191 |
Section 32 | 203 |
Section 9 | 60 |
Section 10 | 62 |
Section 11 | 66 |
Section 12 | 71 |
Section 13 | 73 |
Section 14 | 79 |
Section 15 | 84 |
Section 16 | 120 |
Section 17 | 125 |
Section 18 | 130 |
Section 19 | 138 |
Section 20 | 140 |
Section 21 | 159 |
Section 22 | 160 |
Section 23 | 161 |
Section 24 | 162 |
Section 33 | 205 |
Section 34 | 213 |
Section 35 | 216 |
Section 36 | 221 |
Section 37 | 226 |
Section 38 | 227 |
Section 39 | 228 |
Section 40 | 238 |
Section 41 | 239 |
Section 42 | 241 |
Section 43 | 243 |
Section 44 | 245 |
Section 45 | 249 |
Section 46 | 255 |