Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

5 reviews

katharina90's review against another edition

slow-paced

1.5

I completely agree with the foundational argument of this book. White supremacy lives in our bodies, not just our minds. Trauma, incl. racial trauma, is carried in our bodies and passed down through the generations. It affects and harms all bodies, incl. white ones. 

As a result, healing trauma has to include working with the body. Don't rely on only rationally processing trauma (talk therapy). Learn to recognize how trauma shows up in your body and how to regulate your nervous system. 

If you process your trauma and protect others from it, e.g., your children, you can pass down resilience instead of trauma. 

After the author laid out the above early on, the book started to resonate less and less. Mostly I just found it repetitive but it also contained some very weird takes and offputting statements, incl. fatphobic and police apologist/reformist nonsense. 

We can't self-care our way out of systemically violent and racist policing. Officers who meditate, get massages and take bubble baths will not magically stop being agents of white supremacy and state violence. And referring to the murders of unarmed Black adults and children as "errors" is really not it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Fatphobia

lucy12345's review

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Body shaming and Gaslighting

ashleycmms's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

caterina's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

So torn. There is valuable stuff in here about embodiment and racialized trauma. But also very reformist-apologist approach to police (barely made it through the "police bodies" sections), some concerning comments on physical health (e.g. fatphobia), and other things in need of critique. Yet - in the end, thinking about intergenerational trauma for both white and Black bodies and thinking about racialized trauma in bodies was worth the read. And the body practices were, on the whole, solid.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, and Fatphobia

The animal cruelty and animal death is the first few paragraphs of chapter 16, and it's very shocking and jarring.

friendliz's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Torture, and Violence