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
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
An essential account of Black peoples’ stories of vulnerability, shame, resilience, and more. Anyone who wishes to understand themselves and others better will read this and grow. Who is the audience? Black people who want to know more about how they are not alone. White people, and others who wish to understand more about how Black people have to move through this world and to perhaps, reflect on how we can do better.
I wish there was more diversity of thought in this book. The essays took care to define shame and vulnerability, but went on to use loaded language like white supremacy culture that left me curious: what does that look like? Why are we using this term as opposed to something else? One essay said "when we armor up to protect ourselves we use tools of white supremacy culture." And named those as having prestigious education, prestigious job, having a family structure, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think many Black people may want a traditional family and I don't think that is a tool of white supremacy.
I never want to discount lived experience because I've had people say to me that something I experienced wasn't sexist or wasn't a big deal and that sucks. It's horrible to be told you're experince is not valid or somehow incorrect. However, I have to question perception vs reality, some of there essays causally made claims about racism within our systems and did not have any data to follow that up with. I'm skeptical of Brene's idea the lived experience should trump data, because as important as lived experience is, we also have to understand some people's stories will always be suppressed by the mainstream, therefore making data a bit more solid ground to stand on. I see it as a little irresponsible not to edit out claims regarding policing or our healthcare system, unless statistics are given to back that up, because it can give the audience a perception that may not be accurate.
While many of these essays were powerful I don't think they represent all of the black community because they were almost all clearly liberal by talking about oppression and intersectionality in ways usually bypassed by conservatives. I wonder how they selected who wrote the essays, whether it was people they already knew or liked. Either way I think there was selection bias in which most of the essays were spoken from the same point of view. When you are trying to be representative of Black humanity I think that must include conservatives. It must include Black people who believe they are not victims of white supremacy. It must include Black people who don't think of Blackness as integral to their core identity, Black people who are critical of BLM. All Black people, not just the progressive ones. Like all races, what I've learned more than anything over the past several months, is that Black people are not a monolith and their ideas are much more diverse than this book makes them out to be. Again, not to discount the experiences of anyone in this anthology, only that they aren't representative of some of the people that I've met across the country that are members of BLEXIT and other Black networks with more traditional and varied viewpoints.
I love Brene, but imo you cannot market this as "The Black Experience" without a huge amount of diversity in all directions. I think unfortunately they got so caught up in identity diversity- making sure they include queer and nonbinary folks, which is appreciated- that they forgot about diversity of thought and opinions.
I never want to discount lived experience because I've had people say to me that something I experienced wasn't sexist or wasn't a big deal and that sucks. It's horrible to be told you're experince is not valid or somehow incorrect. However, I have to question perception vs reality, some of there essays causally made claims about racism within our systems and did not have any data to follow that up with. I'm skeptical of Brene's idea the lived experience should trump data, because as important as lived experience is, we also have to understand some people's stories will always be suppressed by the mainstream, therefore making data a bit more solid ground to stand on. I see it as a little irresponsible not to edit out claims regarding policing or our healthcare system, unless statistics are given to back that up, because it can give the audience a perception that may not be accurate.
While many of these essays were powerful I don't think they represent all of the black community because they were almost all clearly liberal by talking about oppression and intersectionality in ways usually bypassed by conservatives. I wonder how they selected who wrote the essays, whether it was people they already knew or liked. Either way I think there was selection bias in which most of the essays were spoken from the same point of view. When you are trying to be representative of Black humanity I think that must include conservatives. It must include Black people who believe they are not victims of white supremacy. It must include Black people who don't think of Blackness as integral to their core identity, Black people who are critical of BLM. All Black people, not just the progressive ones. Like all races, what I've learned more than anything over the past several months, is that Black people are not a monolith and their ideas are much more diverse than this book makes them out to be. Again, not to discount the experiences of anyone in this anthology, only that they aren't representative of some of the people that I've met across the country that are members of BLEXIT and other Black networks with more traditional and varied viewpoints.
I love Brene, but imo you cannot market this as "The Black Experience" without a huge amount of diversity in all directions. I think unfortunately they got so caught up in identity diversity- making sure they include queer and nonbinary folks, which is appreciated- that they forgot about diversity of thought and opinions.
challenging
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced