My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies is a 2017 nonfiction book by Resmaa Menakem, an American therapist specializing in body-centered trauma therapy. A New York Times bestseller, the book examines the impact of racism on Black, white, and police bodies in the United States, positing that historical, familial, and personal trauma is stored deep inside the nervous system. The title of the book gestures to its thesis, namely, that trauma resides in the body and is passed down from one generation to another. The subtitle spells out Menakem’s main goal: providing readers with tools to heal from the trauma of white supremacy. To facilitate this goal, the book explores several key themes, including Race as a Social Construct, The Body and Intergenerational Racial Trauma, and Body Practice and Healing Racial Trauma.

This guide refers to the 2017 edition published by the Central Recovery Press.

Summary

My Grandmother’s Hands comprises four introductory sections, followed by three parts and concluding matter. Part 1, “Unarmed and Dismembered,” explains how white supremacy is systematically, but unwittingly, embedded in the bodies of Americans before birth. The passing down of racial trauma from one generation to the next creates a legacy of suffering in all Americans, regardless of color.