Margo Jefferson

This piece was one of nine created for my exhibit Regarding Privilege, on display from September 23rd to November 2nd, 2023.

American writer and academic

b. October 17, 1947

Quote is from page 91 of Jefferson’s memoir, Negroland, (described as “powerful and complicated” in the New York Times) for which she received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. Jefferson is a well-respected critic, who teaches writing and journalism, and since 1973 has written for Newsweek, Vogue, The Nation, and other publications.

Please contact me if you’re interested in acquiring this piece for your collection.

The text of this piece reads:

Liberal whites who saw that we too had manners, money, and education lamented our cast disadvantage. Less liberal or non-liberal whites preferred not to see us in the private schools and public spaces of their choice. They had ready a bevy of slights: from skeptics the surprised glance and spare greeting; from waverers the pleasantry, eyes averted; from disdainers, the direct cut. Caucasians with materially less than us were given license by Caucasians with more than them to subvert and attack our privilege.