Book Recommendation: “My Grandmother's Hands”
As part of our Racial Justice Initiative, Indivisible OH 12 members are sharing relevant book recommendations. Here, Shawn Fiegelist reviews My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem.
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Why is this book pertinent to racial justice? What is it about?
My Grandmother’s Hands is a book that explains how racism lives in our bodies physically, how holding racism in the body is different from how it lives in our minds and how to recognize racism and work to end it. The author argues that many of our social ills, including racism, can be addressed and remedied by looking at how trauma lives in the body and clearing it out. It is a history, an explanation, a how to book and importantly, an offering to heal ourselves collectively.
Trauma exists in all of our bodies in varying degrees and for various reasons. It is passed down through generations and the author gives historical background on the trauma living in white, black and police bodies showing how this trauma affects how we interact with one another and how it is damaging to all bodies.
The book points out the different ways white supremacy exists like other books I have read. I found it different in its exploration of how the “unmetabolized trauma” of white people going back to the Middle Ages plays into and allows the myth of race to exist.
Divided into 3 parts, the book looks at the history and ongoing trauma living in white, black and police bodies. Each chapter gives body practices meant to identify and move trauma out of the body and ends with highlights of the chapter
Why Do You Recommend This Book?
By examining how it lives in the body as well as in our minds, I found this book to be quite different in how it looks at racism. While examining how it lives in white bodies, the book also gives good explanations of how it lives in police bodies and its effect on black bodies. The body practices offered are excellent opportunities to address the pain and trauma that lives in our bodies not only through our racism but in all the ways it lives in us. These practices can be used in any situation where one needs a clear and calm mind.
What Surprised You Most About This Book?
I had never considered that my racism lived anywhere but in my head and thoughts. Learning to listen and watch for the signals my body gives concerning racism or any other experience it holds, helps me recognize racism. I am also drawn to the author’s suggestion that we need to work and heal collectively to work through racism.