Alice Walker and her daughter...

I teach Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" in my ENG 204 class every semester. I've taught it in ENG 102, as well. It's always a crowd-pleaser, a story students love talking about, in part because of what it says about mothers and daughters. I could go on about Walker's other works about these themes, but it's enough to say that many people think about relationships between mothers and daughters when they think about Alice Walker.

So it's quite sad, I think, to read this article by Rebecca Walker, her daughter. I won't say much at all about the claims Rebecca makes about feminism--except to say that we see the personal price children pay when parents work for some larger cause. (I imagine politician's children sometimes feel this way, too.) Regardless of who is wrong or right here (and if it's "appropriate" for Rebecca to air her dirty laundry in this way), the fact that these two are so estranged is most unfortunate.