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My Grandmother's Hands

Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

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My Grandmother's Hands

By: Resmaa Menakem
Narrated by: Cary Hite
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The consequences of racism can be found in our bodies - in skin and sinew, in bone and blood. In this ground-breaking, inspiring work, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage, the physical consequences of discrimination, from the perspective of body-centred psychology. He argues that until we learn to heal and overcome the generational anguish of white supremacy, we will all continue to bear its scars.

My Grandmother's Hands is an extraordinary call to action for all of us to recognize that racism affects not only the mind, but also the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our racial divides.

'Insightful, thought-provoking and profound. I can't recommend highly enough' Sunny Singh

'A revolutionary work of beauty, brilliance, compassion and ultimately, hope' Robin DiAngelo

© Resmaa Menakem 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

 Mental Health Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences Discrimination Health Social justice

Critic reviews

Insightful, thought-provoking and profound. I can't recommend highly enough (Sunny Singh)
It's not just a manual for feeling your feelings, it's an excavation of the soul. . . Perhaps the most compelling idea in My Grandmother's Hands is that culture lives in the body - in the food we eat, the rituals we perform and ways in which we do or do not soothe our own bodies. It means that when we have the capacity to cultivate new cultures among us through embodied practices. (Rosel Jackson Stern)
A revolutionary work of beauty, brilliance, compassion and ultimately, hope. With eloquence and grace, Resmaa Menakem masterfully lays out the missing piece in the puzzle of why, despite so many good intentions, we have not achieved racial justice. . . This is an intimate guidebook toward racial healing, one that achieves that rare combination for its readers: it is deeply intellectually stimulating while also providing practical ways to engage in the process of repair (Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility)
Full of wisdom and understanding. Menakem offers a new way to understand racism and, more importantly, to heal it. This book lays out a path to freedom and peace, first for individual readers, then for our culture as a whole. A must-read (Nancy Van Dyken, author of Everyday Narcissism)
Resmaa Menakem's penetrating insight into trauma is profoundly impactful, but even more powerful and useful are his strategies for addressing it -- for healing. A brilliant thinker, he is able to bring a multitude of research and experience together to guide us in our understanding of how trauma affects our lives. This is essential reading if we are to wrest ourselves from the grips of trauma (Alexs Pate, author of Amistad)
Forget diversity. Forget teaching tolerance. Forget white guilt. With clarity and insight, Resmaa Menakem offers a profoundly different approach to healing racism (John Friel and Linda Friel, co-authors of Adult Children)
My Grandmother's Hands invites each of us to heal the racial trauma that lives in our bodies. As Resmaa Menakem explains, healing this trauma takes courage and a commitment to viscerally feel this racial pain. By skillfully combining therapy expertise with social criticism and practical guidance, he reveals a path forward for individual and collective healing that involves experiencing the sensations of this journey with each step. (Alex Haley, Professor at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality & Healing)
Menakem cuts to the heart of America's racial crisis with the precision of a surgeon in ways few have before. As this amazing work shows us, policies alone will not do it, and bold social action, though vital to achieving justice, will require those engaged in it to also take action on the injury, deep and personal, from which we all suffer (Tim Wise, author of White Like Me)
All stars
Most relevant
One of the most important books I have read, a voice that will continually change me: my feelings, thinking, living and how I relate. Big stuff, but also for me seemingly small details f.ex. reflecting with nuanced curiosity around the potentially complex reasons for calling my daughter Maya (read Angelou while pregnant) over 20 years ago. The author shows the responsibility which belongs to white bodies in a way that widens and deepens the longing to move into responsibility. This must have taken a miraculous amount of painful work.

discovering each other

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The book from beginning to end, absolutely amazing.

The personal exercise that are shown, what a fabulous interaction to have with the reader

The research

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A very real and honest viewpoint of how people with black bodies are disadvantaged by many systems. An absolutely brilliant tool as a white-bodied counsellor to understand how this impacts every client I see. I recommend this to everyone.

Fantastic insight

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