Black Is the Body

This #thankyouthursday, I am grateful for Black Is the Body.

A few weeks ago my partner and I were visiting our local library on a Friday night (like you do), and instead of checking out physical books that appealed to me I added a few to my Libby holds list for future reading.

Last week Black Is the Body showed up on my digital shelf, and I confess that I was initially reluctant to dive in. I think reading books about social justice is so important, and it can also be tiring.

To be honest, I’m still absorbing the impacts of Evicted and The Sun Does Shine, and when I tried to read White Rage* on MLK Day, I only made it one chapter in before returning it early. (I also bought a copy because it was immediately obvious that I need to own the vital information it contains. Just, I couldn’t absorb it right then.)

I realize it is a perfect example of my privilege that I can dip in and out of books about inequity and injustice, that I can afford to step away from learning about situations that so many other people are beholden to—or consumed by—all day, every day.

All the same, it’s my current truth that there are limits to what I can take, which is why last week I talked about being grateful for “brain breaks” like The Americans and Mr. Robot—and also why Black Is the Body is such a welcome addition to my reading list.

This book is a collection of essays by Emily Bernard, a black female college professor who is married to a white man and has adopted daughters from Ethiopia. It is not a treatise on race relations, not an academic diagnosis of our troubled culture. Black Is the Body is a curated bundle of personal stories that allow me to understand the intimate perspective of another human.

It is honest, direct, and relatable. It is touching and thoughtful and true. And I am grateful for it.

Love > fear,
Christina

*The important book White Rage is not to be confused with “White Male Rage,” which is also worth your attention (and certainly lighter in tone!)