SOURCE: “Faith and the ‘Black Thing’: Political Action and Self Questioning in Grace Paley's Short Fiction,” in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 31, No. 1, Winter, 1994, pp. 79-89.

In the following essay, Meyer examines Paley's self-conscious exploration of racism in various forms, particularly the naïve and self-righteous variety displayed by well-meaning white activists. As Meyer notes, through Faith, a white female protagonist, Paley confronts her own concerns and reservations about speaking on behalf of African Americans.

Grace Paley is almost as well known for her politics as for her short stories. Indeed, she has said that “the three things in my life have been writing, politics, and family” (Isaacs 123), and that each has, at times, been forced to give way to the others. Many of the critics who admire her work, for example, lament the fact that her political activity has kept her from doing more of it. She...