And that’s the place where more women should begin-with the things that make us angry. To be clear, I’m not really into self-help books, so I don’t have one of those catchy three-step plans for changing the world. These women want to change things but don’t know where to begin.
This is a book for women who know shit is fucked up. This is a book for women who expect to be taken seriously and for men who take grown women seriously. This is a book by a grown-ass woman written for other grown-ass women.
My summary of the book won’t do it justice, so let me give you a taste of Eloquent Rage from the Cooper’s own pen: If you’re not a Black woman, you should read this book because it necessarily contextualizes Black women’s emotions in ways that are so befitting for such a time as this. If you’re a Black woman, you should read this book as a form of validation and self-healing. Black women’s anger is a powerful, unshakeable force that sends people from marginalized communities into the streets, the courtrooms, the classrooms, and beyond to fight for the more just world that our ancestors fought for and our descendants will fight for long after we’re gone. She writes that our anger has fueled every political movement in the United States, from suffrage to Civil Rights to #MeToo. What I love about Cooper’s book is that she confronts this idea head-on and flips it on its head. But Black women have a unique relationship with our emotions an overt display of emotions by Black women, particularly negative emotions like sadness, anger, and doubt, is pathologized in the U.S. The ugly truth is that some Americans have the privilege to be emotional about what is transpiring around us (e.g., white women throwing crying fits when confronted about a racist act).
Americans are experiencing a myriad of emotions in response to the horrific events that are taking place in our country, from police brutality against Black bodies, racist effigies, lynchings of Black people, Covid-19 and its disproportionate effects on the health of Black and Brown people, and the lack of presidential leadership. In the words of Angela Davis, we are living in a time that we have never seen before.
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