Other People's Skin: Four Novellas

by Tracy Price-Thompson (Editor)

Led by bestselling author Tracy Price-Thompson, Other People's Skin is a collection of four novellas by four leading African American women writers that acknowledges, examines, and conquers the skin and hair topic among African American women.

In Other People's Skin , Tracy Price-Thompson and TaRessa Stovall, along with fellow authors Elizabeth Atkins, and Desiree Cooper, take on one of the most controversial topics within the African American the self-hatred caused by intraracial prejudice and the ongoing obsession with skin tone and hair texture.

It begins with TaRessa Stovall's "My People, My People," in which a successful advertising executive acquires firsthand knowledge of prejudice when her clients insist on using light-skinned rather than dark-skinned models. Next comes Tracy Price-Thompson's award-winning story "Other People's Skin," a tale set in 1970s Louisiana, where a dark-skinned young woman must come to terms with the bigotry of her light-skinned family. "New Birth," by Desiree Cooper reveals the intense roles that money, class, and skin color play in the intraracial relationship between Catherine, a wealthy, light-skinned lawyer, and Lettie, her dark-skinned house cleaner. Finally, Elizabeth Atkin's "Take It Off" tells the story of a biracial girl who hides her coarse, braided hair from her friends at a mixed-race university in Detroit.

Other People's Skin is the most innovative and varied anthology of sisterhood and unity to date. Each novella entertains, challenges, and, most important, offers healing to the reader—no matter what her race, skin tone, or state of mind.

Genres: Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2007

About the author

Tracy Price-Thompson is the national bestselling author of the novels, Black Coffee, Chocolate Sangria, A Woman's Worth, Knockin' Boots, and Gather Together in My Name. Tracy is a highly decorated Desert Storm veteran who graduated from the Army's Infantry Officer Candidate School after more than ten years as an enlisted soldier. A Brooklyn, New York, native who has traveled extensively and lived in amazing places around the world, Tracy is a retired Army Engineer officer and Ralph Bunche graduate Fellow who holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a master's degree in Social Work.

Tracy is also the co-editor of the anthologies Other People's Skin and Proverbs for the People and composes professional literary reviews based on established elements of writing for several print sources.

Tracy lives in Hawaii with her wonderfully supportive husband and several of their six bright, beautiful, incredible children.

Reviews

[Demetria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a collection of four stories about black women who are battling those color struck demons. The premise is great. The delivery is awful. The stories are not very well-written and not very engaging except for the title short story by Tracy Price-Thompson, which only has moments of narrative grace. Besides yawn-worthy stories, the other thing that brings this book down is a hat. For some reason, the editor felt that the color struck theme was not powerful enough to tie the stories together and decided to make all the stories feature this ridiculous magical fedora. Reading how the authors tried to squeeze that hat into their stories was painful. The idea for this book is great and even though it's a well-worn topic, I think it's something that could be further excavated with good, insightful writing.

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted this to be good. I hoped for nuance, for situations to make me question how I think, how this sort of prejudice affects me. I hoped for it to be a book that could spark a dialogue, inspire progress. In my opinion, it fell woefully short.

While I can agree that backward racism cannot be a thing, the sort of characterization of nearly all the non-brown-skinned characters in each of the stories borders on the same sort of stereotyping that the book claims to be addressing. The first and last story each has one redeeming character. But is that enough? Is that fair, in an us vs. them standoff to then make most of the 'thems' rather evil? As a reader you don't want to root for unity (forgiveness and a parting of the ways at best). Such feeling jeopardizes the point of the book.

There is no nuance, no subtlety to the stories here. The struggle is loud and in your face in every conversation on every page. In this way, to me, it wasn't realistic. I almost felt a bit mentally bludgeoned by the end of it. Prejudice often results in conditioned behavior, somewhat tempered and seemingly natural/inherent to the individual. There are snide remarks and sharp jabs and name that surely hurt as bad as sticks and stones. But not like the vehement arguments that take place on every page throughout the each story.

[Traci Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are four different stories in the Novella. My favorite though was My People, My People by TaRessa Stovall. It is, in my opinion a lesson in tolerance for those of us who are of either the light or dark side of being African American. Helena Booker is a rich, prominent, pretentious, condescending business woman who disliked the idea of using a darker skinned model for her line of cosmetics. Carmella is an advertising exec who, up until now gained notoriety with her advertising saavy. Please read this engrossing story of how these two women, disconnected by color, and yet connected as kindred spirits, learn tolerance and acceptance not only in business matters but in matters of racial justice. A great story.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

i probably gave the author a better rating than deserved however i believe that though her delivery was a bit . . . less than expected the message is still a strong one which i took to heart. the fendora was a bit much to tie into all 4 stories although i sort of get what the author was trying to do. The last story in the book was my least favorite because it didnt really make much sense to me if it were to have taken place currently and the one between the dark maid and the light lawyer was my favorite. It truely touches on this problem of black women, especially, rating the worth of their own people just because of a shade or 2. truely sad but real all the same.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I liked the concept of the book, i felt the delivery was a bit lacking. The writing was a bit too transparent. The common theme of the hat was cute, although it seemed a bit forced in a a couple of the stories (i.e. would someone REALLY put a hat on their head after its been on the ground where people were throwing change in it?). I think this is a good first read for someone who has just recently realized their are color issues in the african-heritage community.

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this book. It explores really deep issues of self-hatred and division among Black people, especially Black women.I think it's important that the issues in this book are more openly discussed in the Black community!

[Terra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent anthology, paying tribute to black women and our unique qualities. I love the common thread running through all of the stories, linking them together, though they are all different.

[Kesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first story is the best. The others can get a little heavy-handed with the message, but overall a good read.

[Deidre Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very enlightening and raises the consciousness about how we are still dealinbg with issues of race.