Terry McMillan on Obama and Racism in America

My interview with Terry McMillan runs today in The Washington Post -- she talks about writing from a child's point of view, a white woman's point of view, and happy endings.

While I focused on her novel for the Post article, I did ask for her thoughts on Obama and what the election meant for Americans, and black Americans in particular.  There wasn't room for this in the Post, but thought I'd provide her answer here. 

This book is set in 2001, and alludes to 9/11.  I must admit being curious about what you think of a more recent event—Obama’s election and re-election. What changes has that made for Americans, and black Americans?


Terry McMillan

"A lot of us were very very proud when he was elected the first time and the second time, and it wasn’t African Americans who got him elected and re-elected. There aren’t enough of us.  I feel very very sorry for him, because he hasn’t been able to do his job as well as I think he would like to be able to do it.  Some members of Congress have made it crystal clear from the beginning that they are basically anti-Obama, and I think racism has a lot do with it.  It has brought out a lot of racial hatred and something that a lot of us – we sort of thought we were past it.  It’s frightening. It’s like we’re going back in time to the 1950s, and basically there are a lot of people who resent having an African American president. It almost feels anti-American, what’s going on.
That’s the irony of it. "

 Gish Jen also talked about cultural issues in my interview with Jen in March.

And Anne Lamott, in an interview in November, talked about being a "progressive Christian" in America.

 

 

Interview with Joyce Maynard

Joyce Maynard’s new novel, After Her, follows two teenage sisters living in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais in northern California during a spate of killings of young women by a serial killer in 1979. But she says that this almost-thriller circles around what she identifies as her obsessive themes in her work: family, the coming of age of a young girl, and what she called recently "the wild card of human sexuality."

It's interesting to read the interview in light of her controversial memoir, At Home in the World, which explored her affair as an 18-year-old with J.D. Salinger.

Maynard spoke from a cottage in New Hampshire, where she was in the midst of a belated honeymoon -- she was married this summer.

My interview with Maynard for The Washington Post.

Katha Pollitt's review of At Home in the World, which touches on some of the themes Maynard discusses in this week's interview.

Maynard's own piece on her novel, in The New York Times.

And a story about her wedding, also from The Times.