Essence_USA__February_2018

SCENE : BOOKS
PROMOTION
More of
What You
Love is On
Fearless
Brittney
Cooper
takes on...
everything.
BEING A BLACK
FEMINIST NOW
ONE OF OUR EMERGING INTELLECTUALS HAS
EVERYBODY TALKING ABOUT HER NEW BOOK,
EMBRACING FEMINISM AND REJECTING IGNORANCE
COOPER, RYAN LASH PHOTOGRAPHY. BOOK STILL, JON PATERSON.
Don’t mess with Brittney
Cooper. That is, if you are
closed-minded, unimaginative,
racist, misogynistic, homophobic
or just plain annoying. Or if you aid or
abet a culture that pits Black women
against other Black women in
defining or rejecting what or who is a
feminist. Step to Cooper unprepared
and uninformed and you will quickly
know why this force of nature is
becoming one of our fiercest voices
in the new generation of African-
American thinkers. If you’re a reader
of the Crunk Feminist Collective blog,
which she cofounded, you’re aware of
the sharp wit and wisdom of the
Rutgers University associate professor
of women and gender studies.
If you’ve dived into the revelatory
Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual
Thought of Race Women (University of
Illinois Press, 2017), you’ve embraced
Cooper’s fearlessness. Now make way
to experience the author like never
before. Her latest effort, Eloquent
Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers
Her Superpower (St. Martin’s Press,
$25.99), is a breakthrough. In this
searing collection of essays that
thread personal history, political
injustice and profound courage,
Cooper successfully argues that Black
women have been the nation’s conscience
and backbone. However, the
work suggests that rarely has our
country affirmed or valued this group.
Even so, Cooper defiantly rejects the
Angry Black Woman stereotype. In fact,
she encourages readers to tap into that
time-honored strength to support our
sisters and to defeat any force that will
hold you and them back. —P.H.B.
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FEBRUARY 2018 ESSENCE.COM 61