Persephone Books discussion

Sally Benson

Not sure what I thought of this story. I was left wondering what the people who read it in 1942 thought about it. Sally Benson is Caucasian and she is writing a personal account of a Black woman who changes her mind about visiting her family when upon leaving New York and stopping in Washington, she is made aware of her color. She won’t be served at the counter, she has to sit with the other “colored” people. She decides not to continue her journey but to return to New York, where she is accepted as she is.

What did anyone else reading this think? I couldn’t help thinking of the book American Dirt and how she was attacked for writing a book about people who were not of her kind.

I didn't know anything about Sally Benson, so I didn't realise that she wasn't a poc; I had assumed she was writing more from experience. That certainly pits an interesting spin on the story - it makes me wonder what the authors motivations were. Ultimately, like you, I'm not sure what to make of it.