But he is angry, and he doesn't know how to process it. Randolph is always policing himself - he can't get too angry, because then he'll be seen as a stereotypical angry black man. Having to be a representative in this space," Thompson-Spires says. "He's unsure all the time, and there's a way that his lack of assurance is very much related to his black identity and his status as a mouthpiece all the time. He's exhausted from what he calls "performing his status as an anti-stereotype," as he tries to negotiate terms with a new officemate. Characters like Randolph, a black professor at a small college. Thompson-Spires' debut short story collection is called Heads of the Colored People, and it's full of characters coping with those pressures. It can be a hard role to fill, says author Nafissa Thompson-Spires, "because you are sort of a representative of what people see as black, by virtue of them not having had much exposure to it, there are all these additional pressures on top of the standard pressures of being black in a white world." Sometimes it's incidental - the only black woman in an hour-long yoga class. Sometimes the only-ness is existential - like the only black student in a private school. How?Īmerica has had its first black baseball player, its first black astronaut, its first black president - but after the firsts, the world is still full of onlies. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Heads of the Colored People Subtitle Stories Author Nafissa Thompson-Spires
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |