It's the Little Things: Everyday Interactions That Anger, Annoy, and Divide the Races

Book Description
New York Times veteran Lena Williams candidly explores the everyday occurrences that strain racial relations, reaching a conclusion that "no one could disagree with" (The New York Times Book Review)

Although we no longer live in a legally segregated society, the division between blacks and whites never seems to go away. We work together, go to school together, and live near each other, but beneath it all there is a level of misunderstanding that breeds mistrust and a level of miscommunication that generates anger. Now in paperback, this is Lena Williams's honest look at the interactions between blacks and whites-the gestures, expressions, tones, and body language that keep us divided.

Frank, funny, and smart, It's the Little Things steps back from academia and takes a candid approach to race relations. Based on her own experiences as well as what she has learned from focus groups across the United States, Lena Williams does for race what Deborah Tannen did for gender. Finally, we have a book that traverses the color lines to help us understand, and eliminate, the alarmingly common interactions that get under the skin of both blacks and whites.




About the Author
Lena Williams, left, is a twenty-five-year veteran of the New York Times. Currently covering sports, she is the senior delegate of the Author's Guild at the New York Times. Her article "It's the Little Things" won the National Association of Black Journalists award for feature writing. She lives in New York City.



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Williams has been a reporter for the New York Times for 25 years; her friend Charlayne Hunter-Gault wrote the foreword to this book. Any book that will help black and white Americans to think about race relations and improve communications in our country is welcome, and Williams has supplied such a book. White people reading it may be amazed at some of the little things that aggravate black people, and white people need to understand why these "little" things are aggravating￯﾿ﾽnot to feel guilty perhaps, but just to be more sensitive. White people, being the majority as least for now, tend to just accept how they do things as the normal way of doing things. Williams' frank talk will help white readers think again about some of the things they say and do. Black people reading this book may see that some of their reactions to "little things" appear to be overly sensitive. Williams often writes about her personal experiences, and she used focus groups across the country to gather more information. This personal approach, often with humor attached, makes the book extremely readable. KLIATT Codes: A￯﾿ﾽRecommended for advanced students and adults. 2000, Harcourt, Harvest, 278p.,


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