An Emma Watson “Our Shared Shelf” Selection for November/December 2018 • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2018/ MENTIONED BY: The New York Public Library • Mashable • The Atlantic • Bustle • The Root • Politico Magazine (“What the 2020 Candidates Are Reading This Summer”) • NPR • Fast Company (“10 Best Books for Battling Your Sexist Workplace”) • The Guardian (“Top 10 Books About Angry Women”) Rebecca … • Fast Company (“10 Best Books for Battling Your Sexist Workplace”) • The Guardian (“Top 10 Books About Angry Women”)
Rebecca Solnit, The New Republic: “Funny, wrenching, pithy, and pointed.”
Roxane Gay: ”I encourage you to check out Eloquent Rage out now.”
Joy Reid, Cosmopolitan: “A dissertation on black women’s pain and possibility.”
America Ferrera: “Razor sharp and hilarious. There is so much about her analysis that I relate to and grapple with on a daily basis as a Latina feminist.”
Damon Young: “Like watching the world’s best Baptist preacher but with sermons about intersectionality and Beyoncé instead of Ecclesiastes.”
Melissa Harris Perry: “I was waiting for an author who wouldn’t forget, ignore, or erase us black girls…I was waiting and she has come in Brittney Cooper.”
Michael Eric Dyson: “Cooper may be the boldest young feminist writing today…and she will make you laugh out loud.”
So what if it’s true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting.
Far too often, Black women’s anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Black women’s eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful tennis player. It’s what makes Beyoncé’s girl power anthems resonate so hard. It’s what makes Michelle Obama an icon.
Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother’s eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. In Brittney Cooper’s world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. But homegirls emerge as heroes. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one’s own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again.
A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2018 BY: Glamour • Chicago Reader • Bustle • Autostraddle
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Cooper may be the boldest young feminist writing today. Her critique is sharp, her love of Black people and Black culture is deep, and she will make you laugh out loud even as she kicks the clay feet out from under your cherished idols.
This was a book full of great insight into a culture I am still trying to learn so much about. Brittney Cooper definitely explained black women rage in a way that was easy to understand and also explained what black feminism was. I cannot wait to read more of her books. Another read I highly recommend.
Brittney Cooper is a national treasure. Eloquent Rage is as exhilarating as it is vulnerable, a crucial book that tackles friendship and feminism, Hillary Clinton and Sandra Bland, violence and family, sex and faith and race and gender, all with vibrant grace and honesty. Cooper is a generous writer, affording even those she rages against good humored compassion, but never letting any of us fully off the hook. This book is just so good.
Brittney Cooper is not just one of the leading black feminist public intellectuals of the day, she is the Black Feminist Prophet we urgently need. Her work is the most rigorous, honest, heartfelt, compassionate, and challenging of any cultural critic out there because she does not shy away from the areas of black life too long considered taboo. In taking the lives of black women and girls seriously, Eloquent Rage succeeds where too many have failed. For those still searching for ways to discuss black women’s lives with nuance and love, Brittney Cooper’s fiery brilliance is ready to light your path.
“I was waiting for an Ida Wells, an Anna Julia Cooper, a bell hooks, a Patricia Hill Collins―an author who wouldn’t forget, ignore, or erase us black girls as they told their own story and that of the race and the nation. I was waiting and she has come―in Brittney Cooper.
Cooper personifies what Sonia Sanchez called “homegirl and hand-grenade”–here, like the homegirl she is, Cooper gives us the uncensored truth about how America has become what it is today, and reminds us in no uncertain terms that Black people, and particularly Black women, have the brilliance, foresight, and vision to bring a different America to fruition, should we choose to use our powers for good rather than evil.
A lot of food for thought here, especially as a white woman. There were a couple of things that I’m not sure I agree 100% with (the Cosby section, for example), but I will certainly keep thinking through a lot of what Cooper presents here.
I liked it but I expected to love it. I identified with a lot of what the author said about family dynamics, being a young overweight black female and relationships with the opposite sex. Good stuff. I knew I wasn’t the only one! lol However what gave me pause was one section where she discussed women who are not Beyonce fans. It seemed like she questioned and didn’t understand how a woman could not be a fan. In my opinion, she implied those of us who do not LOVE her have unresolved issues with “the pretty girl” from middle school. Huh? I like her music (Beyonce is very necessary whenever doing cardio) but I’m not a member of the Hive nor do I care to be and that is fine. Just because I’m not a lover doesn’t mean I’m a hater.