54 pages • 1 hour read
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
In a flashback, Menakem watches television with his grandmother while rubbing her calloused hands. She explains that picking cotton starting at the age of four caused the damage.
In the book’s present, Menakem suggests that society has failed to end racism because it has focused on the mind, not the body. Psychobiology reveals that strong human emotions, such as love, hope, and fear, activate the vagus nerve, a complex brain system that Menakem redubs the “soul nerve.” The soul nerve connects directly to a part of the brain that does not use cognition or reasoning as its primary tool to navigate the world. This part of the brain is primeval and can only issue survival commands like freeze, fight, flee, and rest. White supremacy operates in the entire body, but most powerfully in this lizard part of the brain, which determines what is dangerous and what is safe.
Trauma is complex and intense. It can result from a single, serious incident or a series of smaller wounds. Traumatic retention refers to trauma that is passed down over generations. Many Black people experience racial trauma personally and by proxy because of their history of enslavement and subjugation.
Plus, gain access to 8,650+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
African American Literature
View Collection
Black History Month Reads
View Collection
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
Colonialism Unit
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Contemporary Books on Social Justice
View Collection
Health & Medicine
View Collection
Mental Illness
View Collection
Psychology
View Collection
Self-Help Books
View Collection