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A review by 11corvus11
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon Young
3.0
After reading what he thinks about his writing on rape (basically he wouldn't want to deal with being called out again because it wasn't very fun, but he stands by his comments and just wished he was more articulate about them,) I did some reading (I hadn't heard about this controversy until this book.)
The worst things he said are left out of his book (as far as I noticed) such as suggesting we "educate women" not to drink too many shots on the "first, second, or third date..." lest they be raped and then somehow partly responsible. More here: https://www.theroot.com/in-a-rape-culture-women-are-still-to-blame-1790889637
This memoir is also full of misogyny but I was writing it off as a dude talking about his youth where most boys learn to be terrible and many of us were not very awake in our youth. He was accountable somewhat but then takes 3 steps back. I decided I'm not going to give this dude any more of my time, plenty of books by Black women on my to-read that would be better time spent.
It's a shame because outside of this, the book is well written, funny, and has a lot of Pittsburgh nostalgia. I would have rated a little higher for that, but it already has high stars and will survive my lowly rating just fine.
(Edit: I am adding more stars because white people are showing up with low ratings based in low-kay-at-best white supremacy and I'm balancing them out)
The worst things he said are left out of his book (as far as I noticed) such as suggesting we "educate women" not to drink too many shots on the "first, second, or third date..." lest they be raped and then somehow partly responsible. More here: https://www.theroot.com/in-a-rape-culture-women-are-still-to-blame-1790889637
This memoir is also full of misogyny but I was writing it off as a dude talking about his youth where most boys learn to be terrible and many of us were not very awake in our youth. He was accountable somewhat but then takes 3 steps back. I decided I'm not going to give this dude any more of my time, plenty of books by Black women on my to-read that would be better time spent.
It's a shame because outside of this, the book is well written, funny, and has a lot of Pittsburgh nostalgia. I would have rated a little higher for that, but it already has high stars and will survive my lowly rating just fine.
(Edit: I am adding more stars because white people are showing up with low ratings based in low-kay-at-best white supremacy and I'm balancing them out)