Trespassing: My Sojourn in the Halls of Privilege [Hardcover]

Gwendolyn M. Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1997

In this deeply moving memoir for every woman who has found herself an outcast in the business world, Gwendolyn M. Parker recounts her perilous journey through some of the most exclusive institutions in America. This is the story of a woman who did everything right--the finest schools, a fast-track career on Wall Street--and yet no matter her talent and accomplishments, she discovered that sexism and racism still prevail at the top. At once "searching and painfully revealing" (Time) and "graceful . . . funny, moving" (Newsday), Trespassing is "an important, keenly observed work . . . The real value of Gwendolyn Parker's story is to document the loss we all experience when we try to navigate life's challenges solely as autonomous, free-floating individuals who forget the power that comes from feeling connected to a larger cause or a loving community" (Lani Guinier).

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this moving memoir, novelist Parker (These Same Long Bones) recounts the middle-class upbringing that led her ultimately to Radcliffe, a white-shoe law firm, and corporate America?a two-decade "sojourn" of success in the "halls" of power?that she unceremoniously gave up in order to "seize back the black life I'd bartered away."
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Parker candidly addresses issues of race, gender, and the true meaning of privilege for herself and for society at large. By objective accounts, Parker (These Same Long Bones, 1994) was a success. Educated at the preppie Kent School, followed by college at Radcliffe and law school at New York University, she was employed first by a prestigious New York law firm and later by American Express. Yet her professional life seemed empty, her goals questionable. The story sounds familiar, but Parker's has unusual elements: She is both female and black, and as she considers her experiences, these two factors clearly form the core of her outlook. In one of the most moving and painful lines of this extraordinary memoir, Parker bluntly assesses her situation at the old-boys' law firm: ``I carried the taint of the field and the bedroom.'' Trespassing grips the reader immediately with an evocative chapter on Parker's upbringing in the thriving middle-class black community of Durham, NC. There Parker took life's lessons from her grandmothers. One taught her that ``money gives you freedom that not even white people can take away''; the other, that intelligence was a sharp, infinitely useful instrument, good for dealing with whites, who, as she put it, ``never expected colored people to have any brains.'' For the next 25 years, these lessons form Parker's creed. Success, fueled by rage and resentment, comes readily, and it is not until her first ``failure'' that Parker steps back to question herself. While she understands the value of her achievement, rage alone, she recognizes, can't sustain her, and it exacts a deep personal and social price. Parker's questioning of success motivated solely by racial (or other collective) concerns constitutes Trespassing's most important contribution. (For another take on black women's rage, see Jill Nelson, Straight, No Chaser, p. 1194.) A striking memoir of a gifted black woman's lonely, difficult, and unsatisfying climb to the heights of American power and prestige. (First printing of 35,000; author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395822971
• ISBN-13: 978-0395822975
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,805,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing story, January 24, 2000

By 

jackie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trespassing: My Sojourn in the Halls of Privilege (Paperback)

Although I have no complaints about the writing style of this book, I thought Gwendolyn Parker's story was a disappointment. This book is a great example of how privilege and class can make you oblivious to the suffering of others. It also shows how people have a tendency to only compare themselves and their problems to poeple in the class above them, while completely ignoring the issues facing the people below. She was fortunate to come from a very privileged background and was given opportunities that few people have-especially black females. Yet she fails to acknowledge this privilege and what it brought her. For example, at American Express she was actually put in a program that taught her the secrets of moving up the corporative latter. Imagine having your company pay to teach you the inside secrets to success and I mean the real secrets like how to network and how to interact with upper/executive management. She does finally acknowledge that the fact that she came from a well to do family and attended an elite school was the reason she (unlike most blacks) was given this extraordinary opportunity. However, the first time she is turned down for a position (a position she didn't even want) she leaves the company. What a waste. I am all for following your dreams, but here is a black woman who has inside information she could share to help others. Instead of this book, it would have been more useful if she had written about the American Express get to the top training. Also, I got the impression that she is/was uncomfortable with lower class black people. She talks positively about her friends from similar backgrounds, but their is no positive mention towards the less fortunate black female. But she does take time to mention the lower class or less "smart" black people she met in her northern gammer school. She talks about wondering why there were no "ordinary/average" blacks at AmEx, but she says nothing about hiring any of them when she was in a position to do so. She comes across as the typical upper class black person, who only sees herself as black when she has a problem. At her law firm job she said that being female was the bigger problem although there were more females than black people. She in fact chose not to interact too often with the only other black person at the firm. Her's is a story of how privilege people live privileged lives and receive privilege not allowed the rest of us. When it was convient to be black she did so,otherwise she seemed to live in her perfect little privilege world. This book is an example of how significant the class issue is in America and how often it is overlooked especially by those privileged enough to come from the higher classes.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A look at another slice of life other than the ghetto., March 24, 2000

By 

Dera R Williams (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trespassing: My Sojourn in the Halls of Privilege (Paperback)

Let me say that the criticism aimed at this memoir because of the author's often touted privilege is a little misplaced. More often than not we are inudated with stories of African Americans who have overcome the worst odds living in poverty-stricken, dysfunctional ghettos. These are truly American stories and should be lauded. However, African Americans do not all have the same experiences and therefore have different views of growing up black in America and life in general. There are class structures in the African American communities as there are in other races. There are privileged Latinos and Asians as well as those who come from poor immigrant backgrounds. And so African Americans are not a monolith. We don't all have the same backgrounds and so we don't all think alike. Yes, it appeared that for the most part Ms. Parker had a smooth ride for most of her life but her priviledged background did not preclude her from racism. From the elementary school principal in the "good ole' north" who wanted to hold her back a grade because she had up until then been educated in the segregated south to the constant proving to others when she got to Harvard that she did indeed belong there. No, she did not have to overcome feeling economically out of place as is pointed out in one of the reviews that often blacks must overcome classism as well as racism. Does that make her any less black? I think not. When she got to the top law firm she still had to deal with all the stuff that goes on in white corporate America. And just maybe her privilege was a disadvantage the same way a deprived background was in that "uppity black folk" are constantly told by their families their color is not an obstacle and they can be and do anything as well as go anywhere they want. When they come up against racism it often shocks them to their knees or they choose to disbelieve it causing even more distress. Indeed maybe this story was not one of clawing her way to the top, but starting at the top, and sounds as if she is whining and complaining because she dared face racism is only evidence of her fraility. The fact that she does not appear to some to be sympathetic or helpful to those less privileged sisters and brothers is something that only she has to answer to. All in all this book like "Volunteer Slavery" is an example of when it comes to racism white folks look at us all the same way no matter how much money we have. We have to always work harder to prove ourselves. Let's not put a sister down because her background was easy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What every WHITE person needs to understand!, July 14, 2004

By 

Tedde McMillen (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trespassing: My Sojourn in the Halls of Privilege (Paperback)

Trespassing is about so much more than the trials a woman faces in business. It is a clearly written portrayal of what it means to be black or a minority in the U.S.A. As a white person, I never understood how minorities felt or what they experienced. Gwendolyn Parker paints a picture that communicates the subtle behaviors and attitudes of prejudice so everyone can comprehend how it feels to be a minority and what people of color experience in this country and she accomplished this in a very compelling manner that is a joy to read. This is a must read that you don't want to put down.