Customer Reviews

Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As an African-American journalist, I found Jill Nelson's book to be very real. Those who criticize the book because Nelson strikes them as naive are missing the point, on at least two levels.

In the first place, though she naturally gets into certain generalities, the book is primarily about HER experience. It's not intended to be a handbook for reporters who are climbing the corporate ladder. Given her past, and her particular personality, this is the story of how she happened to react to a specific set of circumstances. How one judges her actions should be different from the way someone judges the book itself.

And secondly, to the extent that the book does have a larger intent, it calls for the dismantling of an outrageously unfair system. Should we all just accept the status quo, and find clever ways to navigate our way past pettiness and stupidity, or strive for a sane alternative?

The fact is that Nelson has done just fine since she left the Post. Viewed in that context, the book is a testament to her courage, and her insistence on personal dignity.

The only other author I ever read who so effectively combined self-pity and wry humor was Erica Jong. Jill Nelson turns a wicked phrase and makes her characters and her situations jump to life. I laughed aloud at her description of her teenage daughter telling her "Mom, get a life!" in response to her lecturing about black conciousness. All through the book I kept wondering where Ms. Nelson's gripes came from. Because her dad left her mom for a white woman, as recounted in the book? She grew up in plush surroundings, with summers on Martha's Vineyard. As the number of unread pages shrank, I kept wondering if Ku Kluxers in white sheets were going to suddenly show up in the book to explain her bitter feelings about white males. Ms. Nelson said that white men are priveleged, but believe me, we too can be put through the grinder. I'm also a former newspaper reporter, born the same year as Ms. Nelson. When she complained about her reporting duries at the Washington Post, saying "I was too old to chase fire engines," I had to laugh. That's exactly what I was doing at another paper at the time she said that. I don't buy what Jill Nelson says, but I did enjoy the way she tells it.

I enjoyed this memoir, but I did find it very self indulgent. The author lives a life of privilege, yet seems to wallow in self pity, never acknowledging how much better off she is than many other people of color. I can hardly believe she would be surprised to find that a corporate media outlet like the Washington Post is racist and stifling. She is also very superficial and elitist, and ranks people by what they look like how much they weigh, what clothes they wear, etc. Never once does she acknowledge solidarity with other oppressed peoples or express compassion for anyone but herself and her circle, outside of referring to herself as a "race woman" and flatteringly categorizing herself with people like Harriet Tubman, and Thurgood Marshall. Also she seemingly has no concept that anyone exists outside of the U.S. concepts of black and white. Often her snark is also annoying and un-funny but that's what kept me reading I wanted to see if she ever changes or examines herself more deeply but it does not happen. Still an interesting and quick read.

My introduction to Jill Nelson was through a program on C-SPAN, Washington Journal. She sounded like a straight-shooting, intelligent, thoughtful person. When I finished Volunteer Slavery, after a marathon, can't put it down, day of reading, I knew her to be funny, down-to-earth, experienced and a wonderfully courageous, excellent author. Her ability to tell the story of her Washington Post experience in the context of family life, parenthood, love and loving, and professional activities demonstrates well-honed writing skills and her grasp of what's really going on under the thin veneer of our complex, multi-dimensional lives. She uses words magnificently, provocatively and with a sense of humor and style that had me laughing out loud.

I agree with the reviewer from 1997 who called Jill Nelson's book naive. This was a silly, nasty memoir! I had to read this for a journalism class once and was amazed that anyone took what Nelson had to say seriously. The book was not about racism, but about Nelson's inability to handle hostile office politics (anyone who has ever read the "Dilbert" cartoon strip knows what I am talking about). If Jill Nelson is reading this, please remember that if office jobs were not called "work," they would be called "play!" Working for "The Man" is the reason why millions play the Lottery! Working for a firm is NOT supposed to be easy! There is a differnce between working for yourself and working for someone else. DUH! A real adult realizes that succeeding in any company involves a combination of talent, work ethic, discipline, and shrewdness to survive Dilbert-style idiocity. Volunteer Slavery is the story of a freelance writer who never worked a daily job in her life, wound up being a minority/female-hire at The Washington Post, failed (as was expected of her by the men who hired her), and wound up back as a freelancer. Those are the facts! Anyone who reads anything beyond this is a fool (or an undergraduate who does not know how the real world operates). To skeptics I pose one question: Why have so many minority journalists at The Washington Post succeeded while Nelson failed? The answer: genuine talent, experience, discipline, and inner-strength! Nelson lacked all of those qualities.

It is ironic yet predictable that most of the people who don't "get" this book, tend to be individuals who are either not female, African American or both. Jill Nelson wrote an honest critique of the experience that many African American women go through when trying to attain the proverbial golden rings in corporate America. I am sorry some folks could not relate or understand Ms. Nelson's book because the points she brings up are true and still reflective of the socialogical culture most African Americans live in today--approximately twenty years later. The patriarchal blindness that many in this culture experience that prevents them from understanding or relating to another individual or cultures experiences is sad yet expected The best that Ms. Nelson and other writers like her can do is just tell the story and let those who get "it" get it.

Were some of her experiences hard to hear? Most definitely. Were the experiences unique to her? Absolutely not. Ms. Nelson says on in chapter 2, that she has been doing the standard Negro balancing act which is "blurring the edges of [her] being so that they [white people] don't feel intimidated." There are few African Americans, I would venture to guess, who haven't experienced this feeling at one time or another, yet it is virtually impossible to communicate this experience in a way that is understandable to someone who hasn't had to always be "aware" of how they are perceived and how those perceptions can affect other African Americans as well. Ms. Nelson does an excellent job explaining these details and if some people are still clueless, well, it's through no fault of her skill as a writer.

Keep on shedding a spotlight on these issues Ms. Nelson. There are a few out there who are truly looking for the light.

Volunteer Slavery is how a freelance writer named Jill Nelson - who had never worked a full-time magazine or newspaper job in her life - was hired by The Washington Post, one of the more ruthless corporations around. Unfamiliar with office culture due to lack of professional experience, Nelson is unable to handle the hostile office politics of the newspaper and eventually quits. All the while, she blames everyone else for her problems, trashes seasoned pros, and details her sex life and substance abuse. Nelson's book is dishonest because she lacks the courage and inner-strength to examine what her "authentic negro experience" was really all about: she was hired by The Washington Post because they wanted to hire an inexperienced minority staffer that would fail. One of the most sinister practices in journalism is when white employers deliberately ignore and do not hire the legions of seasoned, award-winning, and tough minority journalists in this country - whom they know will survive and triumph over office politics - and instead hire green rookies that are easily crushed. Afterwards, white employers can quickly replace them with a white employee and claim, "well, we tried hiring a minority, but.." and still claim adherance to diversity in the workplace. Volunteer Slavery reveals more between the lines than anything that appears in actual print

I found Ms. Nelson's book to be very informative, disturbing and humorous. I believe Ms. Nelson walked into the Washington Post with a lot of preconceived notions. She did not know she was entering a "man-made" jungle, and in the jungle one becomes a predator, prey or a skilled survivor. In the end she became a skilled survivor and not a "Washington Wildebeest". I am glad that she found her way back home, and she did not permanently damage her health, sanity or her outlook on life. God bless you Ms. Nelson!

Jill Nelson is the modern day Harriet Tubman, leading the mentally enslaved from the chains of industrial oppression to the freedom of self-determined realization. If you read this missive and don't ask yourself if you've ever compromised your integrity to further someone else's capitalist agenda, you've missed the point of this brilliant body of work. Angst, inner turmoil, and introspection abound on the pages and tell the tale of a woman trapped in the web of office politics and backstabbing that eat at your joy, that erode your sense of self-worth. What is the price of voluntarily whitewashing your identity to please people with an agenda that does not validate or acknowledge the talents you bring to the table as a person of color? It's so much more than the reflections of a sista who got a position with the Washington Post who got a case of buyer's remorse and didn't like her job. This is the impetus to assess what it is that is important in life and to run towards freedom.

Volunteer Slavery is STILL the book! Family, friends and coworkers are probably sick and tired of hearing me raving about the revealing, blistering and gossipy tell-all memoir! It's been nearly 10 years since the book was published, but I still regularly reread certain passages when I need inspiration, a good laugh, or a clearer understanding of the journalistic imbroglio with which I frequently have to deal with--after more than 15 years in the business!! Celebrate the anniversary of the BEST book EVER written about what it's REALLY like being a black journalist on the plantation...the newsroom at a daily newspaper!!