Volunteer Slavery Abridged

Rating:
Summary: A rare combination of self-pity that still makes you laugh
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: An embittered, naive memoir of a green journalist
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: Nearly 10 years later and Nelson's words still ring true....
Review: 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!!