My Grandmother's Hands; Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
Nancy Wong (Author photo) Las Vegas: Central Recovery Press, 2017. Second printing [stated]. Hardcover. xx, 309, [3] pages. Footnotes. Illustrations. Boxes. Signed bookplate on half-title page. Page 129/130 has lower corner creased. Resmaa Menakem (born Chester Mason, Jr.) is an American author and psychotherapist specializing in the effects of trauma on the human body and the relationship between trauma, white body supremacy, and racism in America. He is the author of “My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies,” which appeared on the New York Times bestseller list in May 2021 and "The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating our Nation's Upheaval and Racial Reckoning,". He is also the founder of the Cultural Somatics Institute.[ For ten years, Menakem cohosted a radio show with former U.S. Congressman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on KMOJ-FM in Minneapolis. He also hosted his own show, “Resmaa in the Morning,” on KMOJ. Menakem has served as the director of counseling services for Tubman Family Alliance, a domestic violence treatment center in Minneapolis; the behavioral health director for African American Family Services in Minneapolis; a domestic violence counselor for Wilder Foundation; a divorce and family mediator; a social worker for Minneapolis Public Schools; a youth counselor; a community organizer; and a marketing strategist. From 2011 to 2013, Menakem was a community care counselor for civilian contractors in Afghanistan, managing the wellness and counseling services on 53 U.S. military bases. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze. My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for Americans to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body. Author Resmaa Menakem introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: Sensitive and probing, this book from therapist Menakem delves into the complex effects of racism and white privilege. Departing from standard academic approaches, he speaks from the wisdom of his grandmother and his own expertise in somatic therapy, a field that emphasizes the mind-body connection. Trauma, both present-day and historical, forms the cornerstone of Menakem’s analysis. He writes that race is a “myth—something made up in the 17th century,” with the concepts of whiteness and racial superiority nonetheless now “essential facts of life, like birth, death and gravity.” The result is that both black and white people are traumatized with fear of the racial other and with the “dirty pain of avoidance, blame, and denial.” At the outset, Menakem implores readers to “experience” his book in their bodies. To this end, bodycentric activities, such as breath exercises, are described throughout. Menakem emphasizes body mindfulness, helping readers move from unhealthy reflexive responses to traumatic emotions to the conscious experience of “clean pain,” which involves directly facing such emotions and thereby getting past them. Menakem is specific when directing his messages. “To all my white readers,” he says, “welcome... let’s get to work.” To law-enforcement officers he gives the same welcome. And to African-Americans, he offers counsel and highlights the value of their experiences. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Racism, Trauma, White Privilege, Somatic Therapy, Mind-body, Bodycentric, African-Americans, Whiteness, White-Body, Police, Law Enforcement, Cultural Healing, White Supremacy, Chester Mason
ISBN: 9781942094609
[Book #84680]
Price: $125.00