My Grandmother’s Hand- Book Review

Summary:

The author has taken the generational hand down of trauma and applied to bodies of people of color as well as applying it to both white bodies and police.
His main over all arch is that bodies filled with unresolved trauma will inflict trauma to other people. That even the notion of white supremacy is rooted in body trauma that white people inflicted onto white people prior to immigrating to the US and laying the foundation of the current political environment we live in. The job of being a public servant and witnessing trauma is also trauma the cops carry that is also part of the reason why they inflict trauma on the community—> all body trauma that is unresolved.
Since the body is the initial indicator that communicates fight or flight, the body’s reaction to said environmental circumstances that would result in our responses to situations not always our brain. Those same situations that inflict more trauma on all parties involved.
In order for bodies to feel safe in the company of people of color or cops or white bodies, we have to stop and resolve the trauma we’ve been carrying from generation to generation.

What I enjoyed:

The context and historical ties to trauma. Even if I didn’t agree with the white trauma or the police related trauma, the author did a good job at connecting the book to his goal of toeing body trauma to how we tater other people in our lives.

He did a great job at enplaning how our brain and body reacts differently. How our nerves and its mapping to trauma response are also different. How one would react to different stimuli from one group to another is also different. How all of our collective trauma is rooted in different dirt, but the responses are similar. To inflict trauma when reacting in a space rooted of trauma.

What I did not enjoy:

The exercises. Had I known that these body exercises were sprinkled into the chapters, I may not have bought the book. It was more of a disruption to the way that I digest information and the book’s narrative. To be asked to stop and work through an exercise is not what I was expecting. But it could be helpful to another reader who is ok with reading some intonation and then working trough how their body feels working through those steps.

Some quotes:

“In America, nearly ask if us, regardless of background or skin color, carry trauma in our bodies around the myth of race.” (p. 14)

“Unhealed trauma…. Part of someone’s personality… can become family norm…. It can start to look like culture.” (p. 39)

“Resilience and love aren’t sufficient to completely heal trauma.” (p. 89)

Conclusion:

The book provided a great outlook on how trauma impacts our bodies, our brains and our behaviors. It notes how we pass these unresolved traumas to other generations from mother to child and by story telling. How we can break those said generational traumas. It even applies those said logics to other non-traditional groups outside of black and brown bodies- such as white people and the policing bodies.
In order to achieve a more collaborative environment without the liven breathing monster called white supremacy, each group has to take the time to heal that trauma.
The question remains- do we all really want to?