The XX Factor : Alice Walker

Felled by "The Ten-Year Nap"

Emily Bazelon — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:34:00 GMT

I'm sure Marjorie is right that we don't know the half of the Walkers' feud—how can we, since we're only hearing Rebecca's side? And I agree with Marjorie and Maureen that feminism should entail a little effort to think from the perspective of a woman...(read more)

Mommy Wars

Marjorie Valbrun — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:28:00 GMT

The Walkers' feud is way too complex and layered for us to assume we really understand what is going on between them. Clearly there's family dysfunction, old resentments, past disappointments—all the stuff that most families deal with on some level or...(read more)

Easier Said Than Lived

Maureen Sullivan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:21:00 GMT

I find it a little ironic that we're so ready to tear Rebecca Walker apart in the same forum where some of us sympathized with the plight of Ashley Dupree. No matter how gross the lot of prostitution, Dupree chose that (although we didn't know until later...(read more)

Narcissim Isn't the Whole Issue

Lucy Morrow Caldwell — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:33:00 GMT

Rebecca Walker may be a narcissist, but this quality alone is not what bothers me. Her mother Alice has been called the same, yet in the older Walker’s groundbreaking 1983 novel The Color Purple , she managed to forge some meaningful social commentary....(read more)

Walker vs. Walker

Nina Shen Rastogi — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:42:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, memoirist Rebecca Walker published an essay in the U.K.’s Daily Mail titled “How my mother's fanatical views tore us apart,” which has been making the American Internet rounds in recent days. The mother in question is Alice Walker, prominent...(read more)

The Whole Race Deck

Bonnie Goldstein — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:44:00 GMT

Welcome, Kim, and I’m glad you brought up Alice Walker's “womanist” position. Her Root essay last March, “Lest We Forget: An Open Letter to My Sisters Who Are Brave,” endorsing Barack Obama stayed with me a long time. Not just because I found Walker’s...(read more)