Читать книгу My Grandmother's Hands - Resmaa Menakem - Страница 8

If the persistence of white supremacy in twenty-first century America surprises you, this book will give you a startlingly different understanding of why. You will discover the vital force behind white supremacy is in our blood—literally—and in our nervous systems. However light or dark our skins, we Americans must all contend with these elemental forces.

If you are not surprised that widespread white supremacy continues to injure America, but have no ideas or little hope for overcoming it, keep reading. This book offers a profoundly different view of what we can do, individually and together, to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide. This process has little to do with ideology, politics, or public policy and everything to do with neuroscience and the body.

If you see white supremacy as a belief system or ideology, in this book you will discover only a fraction of it exists in our cognitive brains. For the most part, white supremacy lives in our bodies. In fact, white supremacy would be better termed white-body supremacy, because every white-skinned body, no matter who inhabits it—and no matter what they think, believe, do, or say—automatically benefits from it. (Beginning with Chapter 1, white-body supremacy is the term I’ll use.)

If you are convinced that ending white supremacy begins with social and political action, do not read this book unless you are willing to be challenged. We need to begin with the healing of trauma—in dark-skinned bodies, light-skinned bodies, our neighborhoods and communities, and the law enforcement profession. Social and political actions are essential, but they need to be part of a larger strategy of healing, justice, and creating room for growth in traumatized flesh-and-blood bodies.

If you believe America’s racial tensions lie not in white supremacy but in its dark-skinned people and the power they wield, do not read further. The pages ahead will trigger your trauma reflexes and make your life more painful than it already is.