The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender and Freedom » (1st Edition)

Barbara Smith is the host of a syndicated television series and appears regularly on NBC's Today show. She owns three B. Smith's restaurants in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Sag Harbor, New York, and is the editor in chief of the newly launched magazine B. Smith Style. She lives in New York City and Sag Harbor.

The Truth That Never Hurts brings together for the first time more than two decades of literary criticism and political thought about gender, race, sexuality, power, and social change. As one of the first writers in the United States to claim Black feminism for Black women in the early seventies, Barbara Smith has done groundbreaking work in defining a Black women's literary tradition; in examining the sexual politics of the lives of Black and other women of color; in representing the lives of Black lesbians and gay men; and in making connections between race, class, sexuality, and gender.

Review

As a black lesbian feminist activist and scholar, Smith is a highly respected voice of conscience who speaks discomforting but necessary truths about the interlocking nature of oppressions within American culture and institutions. These landmark essays . . . show Smith challenging academic, political, and community organizations to expand their missions in order to include persons who have been perennially at the margins of our society. . . . Recommended.