You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
504 reviews for:
You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
4.56 AVERAGE
504 reviews for:
You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
Tarana Burke, Brené Brown
4.56 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This did more to help my mental health than any other self-help book I've read especially the last essay, it helped me to give myself grace and understand that there is nothing inherently wrong with me. Do I need to change my behaviours? Yes, but I do not need to be perfect. It was interesting to learn and reflect upon the ideas that white supremacy and the policing of respectability politics can only work through shame and how love is needed not only as an emotion but as a framework to organise/ combat white supremacy and fascism.
When talking about mental health or abuse, people tend to focus on statistics and graphs to show what's happening. There is never a focus on the visceral reaction to what individuals are experiencing, how people feel, and how they act even if it may seem 'crazy'.
When talking about mental health or abuse, people tend to focus on statistics and graphs to show what's happening. There is never a focus on the visceral reaction to what individuals are experiencing, how people feel, and how they act even if it may seem 'crazy'.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Medical trauma
I’ll revisit this at a future date, but cannot bring myself to drag this reading out at this time.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
I could feel the heart & soul poured into each of these essays. I especially loved Kiese Makeba Laymon's and Luvvie Ajayi Jones' pieces.
Necessary reading, especially for white folks who work in therapeutic contexts and would like to better support black folks. Highly recommend.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Enjoyable collection of stories under the umbrella themes of shame and vulnerability.
I read Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead a few years ago, and did not love it, but appreciated and connected to the idea of releasing the tough veneer ever-present in toxic work cultures in favor of modeling and normalizing expression of a range of healthy human emotions. This collection’s responses to these ideas is enlightening.
My favorites within this curation were:
The Wisdom of Process by Prentis Hemphill (on queer black experience)
Love Lifted Me: Subverting Shame Narratives and Legitimizing Vulnerability as a Mechanism for Healing Women in the Black Church by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts (On feminism as an antidote to shame perpetuated in the church)
Never Too Much by Marc Lamont Hill (on toxic male masculinity’s bad effect on black boys)
Filling Every Page with Joy: Rewriting Trauma and Shame by Kaia Naadira (on overcoming internalized shame about sexual abuse)
Where the Truth Rests by Tarana Burke (on self talk as a healing tool in coping with anxiety associated with trauma)
I read Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead a few years ago, and did not love it, but appreciated and connected to the idea of releasing the tough veneer ever-present in toxic work cultures in favor of modeling and normalizing expression of a range of healthy human emotions. This collection’s responses to these ideas is enlightening.
My favorites within this curation were:
The Wisdom of Process by Prentis Hemphill (on queer black experience)
Love Lifted Me: Subverting Shame Narratives and Legitimizing Vulnerability as a Mechanism for Healing Women in the Black Church by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts (On feminism as an antidote to shame perpetuated in the church)
Never Too Much by Marc Lamont Hill (on toxic male masculinity’s bad effect on black boys)
Filling Every Page with Joy: Rewriting Trauma and Shame by Kaia Naadira (on overcoming internalized shame about sexual abuse)
Where the Truth Rests by Tarana Burke (on self talk as a healing tool in coping with anxiety associated with trauma)
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
I picked this up on a whim and briefly read the first few pages, which happen to be a conversation between Tarana Burke (the creator of the #MeToo movement) and Brené Brown. I appreciated the transcription of the conversation, as it sets clear intentions for the anthology. There is a wide range of professions represented, such as writers, entertainers, artists, activists, and more. There’s also mental health representation, specifically anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, as well as disability rep. Many of the contributors are also queer and/or trans. What I will say is that I would have liked more perspectives from men-identifying people, but that truly is my only critique. This anthology specifically deals with shame, and how shame is pushed upon Black people, especially those of intersecting identities, and the ways in which we process what we think should be shameful.