Thurman explores the history and functionality of deception as a tool used by oppressed people to survive in the absence of physical might. He begins with examples from the animal kingdom: Cuttlefish release ink to blind predators and escape, while other animals play dead or use camouflage to avoid detection.

Thurman proceeds with numerous other examples. Children in class often use deceptive techniques to divert their teachers’ attention. Women, Thurman says, have often been forced to deceive men to survive in a “man-dominated social order,” and he argues that equal rights for women are an important step toward rectifying the “morally degrading aspects of deception and dishonesty that enter into the relationship between men and women” (59). The prophet Ezekiel communicated to his people in code through Nebuchadnezzar. Thurman tells the story of a minister delivering a prayer at the funeral service of a Black man killed by police in the South. The minister’s prayer was pointed and political but ostensibly delivered to God, so white officers at the service could not accuse him of inciting political violence.

Deception has moral implications, and Thurman explores rhetorical arguments for its rationalization: “Is there a fine distinction between literal honesty and honesty in spirit and intent? […] Are there times when to tell the truth is to be false to the truth that is in you?” (62).