★★★★★ 5
Think of racism as a moral failing isn’t helpful. Instead, think of it as a trauma response.
Format: Kindle, Format: Kindle
If we are willing to stop and listen to the voices of these people, both in the streets and in their writings (for generations now), we will hear them tell us their experience. And their experience is horrific. Some of us will turn away, finding solace in justifications (“He should have complied!”) or distancing (“My family was poor too. None of my family owned slaves.”) But if we care about a sustainable future for our country, if we have the smallest shred of a sense of responsibility for our neighbor, or if (like me) we claim to follow Jesus, the one who taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to put other people’s lives before our own, then we must listen.
In My Grandmother’s Hands, Resmaa Menakem comes to this conversation from a different and very helpful angle. He suggests that three groups are clashing in our country today: black-bodied people, white-bodied people and police. He suggests that the animus, reactivity, and often explosive violence between these groups is in fact the result of unprocessed trauma. He digs deep into the story of each of these groups to demonstrate the primary and secondary trauma each group carries. Then he talks about the process of trauma retention and how, if we fail to understand and process our trauma, we inevitably become less flexible, more reactive, and more violent. He suggests that the solution to our problem is not solely in education, awareness or even new policies, but in becoming more aware of our bodies, learning how to handle and process trauma, and becoming more resilient in our interactions with other traumatized people.
This is the first book about racial injustice that I’ve read where I finished feeling like I could actually make a difference. I’m not a policy maker. I’m not able to be a regular front-line activist. I don’t have piles of money to spend at Black-owned businesses. It’s easy to feel like my small contribution can’t possibly make a real difference. But Menakem suggests a path that any one of us can walk--coming to terms with our own experience of racialized trauma -- and this will open up the path for other ways we can be a part of creating a more just, compassionate, and equal society.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2020
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