ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes between the harsh critiques people give one another, which may contain 'truth', and liberating truth-telling, they are not the same. It examines whether people are really dedicated to truth-telling when they are exposing something about someone else. Harsh criticism, with a truth-telling component, is often a major characteristic of black mother-and-daughter relationships. Since many black women were and still are raised in households where most of the love and affection people receive comes from black women elders, mothers, aunts, and grandmothers who may also use criticism in a verbally abusive way, the may come to see such a practice as a caring gesture. Most black women know what it is like to bear the brunt of brutal tongue-lashings. Most of people have been told the 'truth' about themselves in ways that have been hurtful and humiliating.
