The Rif Raff Book Club met Tuesday February 26th for the February book selection Our Nig by Harriet Wilson at the CD Cafe located at 5980 S Archer, Chicago (773.838.8855). Some of the patrons at this Cafe had real bad body odor and tried to cover it up by over-cologning. The food looked rank. One diner had what looked like a sandwich but it was covered in melted white cheese with french fries encrusted in it. It looked like slop. The Polish beer was too "yeasty" for some. But a lively discussion about the book did occur.

Our Nig by Harriet Wilson

This would have to be one of the most important books ever put on the RifRaff book club list. It was a real stroke of luck that we discovered it on the internet as a possible read for Black History month. The fact that the book is the first ever written by an American Black female author makes it a must read. The introduction and appendix were very long, but useful. The re-discovery of the book in 1984 after 124 years, validates the importance of the work as a piece of history. The usual themes from Black authors were present throughout the story. The most interesting element to me was the underlying exposure of institutional racism even in a part of the country that was supposed to be sympathetic to the black cause for freedom. The main character "Our Nig" a free black, was put through a living hell serving her white family. Today in many ways we see the same themes of Blacks inferior to Whites in a unspoken underlying way. This book could change the way we look at this issue and expose modern day institutional racism for what it is, wrong. The book forces the realization that we as a nation have not come that far in making progress toward racial equality.