A review by prettypious
For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez

5.0

Immediately move this book to the TOP of your TBR pile. This book in my opinion belongs with the The Bridge Called My Back, Combahee River Collective, etc., cannon. This book was so familiar to me. As a nonimmigrant, non Latina Black woman, this book presented critical nuances of white supremacy and its multiple iterations in a conscious and honest way, while not disparaging Blackness, Black women or being AntiBlack. It seemed like it was written by one of my Afrolatina friends and I believed every word Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez said as she wrote with such clarity and conviction. She covered a range of topics including meritocracy, colonialism, colorism, antiBlackness and white supremacy in America and Central/South America, the White gaze and the academy. As an educator I would share this book starting in 9th grade, certain chapters in 7th and excepts of essays as early as 4th grade, particularly the one related to academia and self identity. Anyways this was an audio library book (read by the author) that I have returned but went ahead and purchased a copy of for my personal library, and ordered two more for friends. She says this is a love letter and she ain’t lying. I know a lot of women and girls that needed to hear someone else say and affirm some of the thoughts and feelings they may have that are often invalidated by their culture, families, friends, and society. That bravery to believe in yourself and that the life you want to live for yourself is valid and important is something that all young Black and Brown women need to learn quick, fast and in a hurry, and I do believe they rely on those of us that have come before to not only clear the path and tear shit down, but also leave them some Hansel and Gretel crumbs to help them make their own way. This book is a full meal, comfort food for the soul that will just keep on giving.