What is the author's tone in the collection, Well Read Black Girl?

The tone of this anthology varies from essay to essay, as each author brings her own style of writing and seeks to achieve a different goal.

Some authors, such as Jesmyn Ward, for example, are simply re-telling moments of their lives which were heavily influenced by literature. Thus, these essays tend to be informal in tone, most often nostalgic, wistful, and rife with everyday expressions that would not normally be found in academic literature. Gabourey Sidibe’s essay, titled “Gal: A Hard Row to Hoe,” is an even sharper example of the informal, even comedic tone in many of the essays in this anthology. She writes phrases such as “Insert shrugging emoji,” (75) which not only does not constitute a full sentence in a grammatical sense, but also refers to a non-academic subject – namely, emojis used through technological devices such as cellphones and laptops. She bridges the gap between serious subject matter and comedic or light interpretations of it, showing that things like racism or sexism should not be treated as remote ideas but rather as ordinary parts of modern life in the twenty-first century.

On the other hand, several authors in this collection are older, or simply less prone to using slang in their writing. Some, like Rebecca Walker, are the children of writers themselves. They thus pay homage to their literary roots and write in a slightly more formal, educational tone. Walker’s piece features literary devices which show her immense skill with words. She begins several consecutive sentences with “I,” for example, “I honor this mission…I hope my readers see themselves in my writing…I hope each of my books creates a point of connection,” (53) etc., to place herself and her goal at the center of the text, then transitions into using ‘we.’ She says, “We are to be curious… We are to look to the words of our sisters… We are to seek beauty” (54). She thus places all black women at the center of the text. This subtle literary device is demonstrative of a different kind of writing: a more formal, stylized writing.

Still other authors use language that is common in social justice discourse. Words like ‘hyperaware,’ ‘microaggression,’ and more tend to demonstrate the author’s authority in social justice activism and literature, however they may serve to confuse certain readers unaccustomed to seeing such highly-specific language for what tend to be more intuitive concepts. Morgan Jerkins’ “To Be A Citizen” is one such example of a piece intentionally using highly specific language that constitutes a kind of jargon, known only to those who occupy spaces or industries in which this language was developed to begin with.