By: Resmaa Menakem
A great book overall. In short, its about race and trauma with equal emphasis placed on both. I have specific categories of people I think this would be best suited for if I had to prioritize. IMO this book should be a priority for white people who are stepping into social justice and who find themselves uncomfortable with other writer’s tone toward white people (perceived or real). This is the first book I’ve read that does a good job at kindly walking white people through their own historical trauma. Resmaa lays out how simply being white perpetuates systemic racism but he does so in a way that feels devoid of judgement. It also coaches the reader (white) on how to recognize and de-escalate the sometimes knee-jerk push-back to being confronted about white-body privilege. For example, I requested a family member read The New Jim Crow. They made it through and gained a lot from the read but felt very attacked throughout. Had they read this book first, I think they would have been much better equipped for The New Jim Crow.
IMO this book is a less academic (on purpose) handling of the same info metered out by The Body Keeps The Score. There are fewer (at least for white readers) anecdotes that are the same level of triggering as TBKTS. There is also immediate incorporation of the body-work into the writing so you have tools to use while reading. I will say, there is one moment where the author used a hypothetical to elicit a response from the reader and he totally freaking got me. As a reader, you are warned, goaded, cajoled, coached and implored time and again to stop and do the practices laid out by Resmaa. And about 3/4 of the way through he put a scenario out there so infuriating and personally significant to me, that I had a very strong visceral reaction. Immediately after he writes - now stop and do the practices we have been talking about. And I did. Almost immediately after settling myself down, I realized how brilliantly he got me to do the work. I was deeply impressed. This book covers a lot of the same ground as TBKTS but in a totally different way.
There are whole chunks of this book intended to deal with trauma for Black and POC people as well as whole portions devoted to “The Police” as a body and the trauma they endure. I found both of those sections unique and insight-giving. While there are some people who I think would gain more from bumping this up the reading list before other reads, this book is a must for pretty much everyone.