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

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction

Part 1, Chapters 1-9

Part 2, Chapters 10-17

Part 3, Chapters 18-24

Conclusion

Background

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

ConclusionChapter Summaries & Analyses

Conclusion Summary: “Afterword”

The Afterword addresses the killing of Black people by law enforcement officials. Police officers kill Americans an average of three times daily. The percentage of Black victims is two and a half times that of white victims. Although police killings are common in the US, the 2017 murder of Justine Damond drew global outrage. Damond was a white Australian woman living in an upper-middle-class section of Minneapolis. A Black police officer killed her outside her home. The incident was a wake-up call for white people, who suddenly understood why Black people fear and mistrust police.

Damond’s death demonstrates that the trauma embedded in police bodies is no longer a Black or American problem. Rather, it is a global problem. Facing pain and working through trauma is the only way to curb the violence. A residency system akin to that of medical professionals may improve police training. Mentors could coach, guide, encourage, and hold their residents accountable. Officers could learn psychological first aid, somatic healing techniques, and mindfulness alongside de-escalation techniques. Officers trained in this way would be less apt to draw their weapons unnecessarily. Moreover, their lizard brains would not be as quick to activate. Civilians must demand change to make their communities safer.

Conclusion Summary: “Five Opportunities for Healing and Making Room for Growth”

Menakem ends his book by outlining five opportunities for healing: healing the self, healing with the help of a trusted person, healing in community with others, healing with the help of a body-focused professional, and healing with the help of a trauma specialist.

Conclusion Analysis

Menakem’s Afterword conveys a sense of urgency for ending and healing from white-body supremacy. The killing of unarmed Black people by police has risen to epidemic levels in the last decades. Inequity in policing and police violence have led to widespread mistrust of law enforcement among Black communities across the country. Many Americans, regardless of race, are outraged by the violence. However, the death of Damond brought international attention to the country’s policing problem as “police brutality jumped not only a national border, but a racial fence” (301). Millions of white people now see themselves as potential victims of police violence. This shift in perspective presents a new opportunity to mobilize citizens and bring about change.

Police departments have been militarized to the point that police behave like soldiers in combat zones, acting first, thinking later, and citing fear to justify their actions. Menakem argues that this is because police officers are under tremendous stress, which causes them to experience secondary trauma on the job. Because police work inherently involves conflict and the possibility of violence, it is one of the places where the effects of racial trauma are most visible. Menakem uses the police as an example to illustrate the link between The Body and Intergenerational Racial Trauma. White supremacy has conditioned police officers to perceive Black bodies as a threat. As this perceived threat triggers an instinctive, fight-or-flight response in their nervous systems, violence becomes more likely. To end the epidemic of police violence against Black bodies, police must learn to settle their own bodies and unlearn the instincts that have been embedded in them by white supremacy.

To end police violence, the country must rethink its policing models and practices. Healing trauma is key to curbing the brutality. Because Menakem is interested in linking theory with practice, he concludes with a list of approaches to help all bodies heal.