--- description: McMillan Cottom is the author of Thick: And Other Essays and is an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Tressie McMillan Cottom ## Tressie McMillan Cottom Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close McMillan Cottom is the author of [Thick: And Other Essays](https://thenewpress.com/books/thick) and is an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. ## Tressie McMillan Cottom Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close *  Feb 20, 2020 ### [Nearly 6 Decades After the Civil Rights Act, Why Do Black Workers Still Have to Hustle to Get Ahead?](https://time.com/5783869/gig-economy-inequality/) Here's why black Americans have to hustle more [U.S.](/section/us/) *  Jan 8, 2019 ### [I Was a Pregnant Woman in Crisis. All the Doctors and Nurses Saw Was an Incompetent Black Woman](https://time.com/5494404/tressie-mcmillan-cottom-thick-pregnancy-competent/) [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) Meta: null ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/author/tressie-mcmillan-cottom/","name":"Tressie McMillan Cottom"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://time.com/author/tressie-mcmillan-cottom/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/author/tressie-mcmillan-cottom/"},"name":"Tressie McMillan Cottom","jobTitle":null,"description":"McMillan Cottom is the author of Thick: And Other Essays and is an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University.","url":"https://time.com/author/tressie-mcmillan-cottom/","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/"}}] ```