Resmaa Menakem - The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nations Upheaval and Racial Reckoning

Praise for The Quaking of America

Resmaa Menakems The Quaking of America is a brilliant and effective guide to embodied social change. All of us need to read this bookand then act on it.

Angela Rye, NPR political analyst and former CNN commentator

Wow. Just wow. Prepare to see what is coming. Prepare to feel the urgency. Prepare to be changed. This is a book that will wake you up, excite, and terrify you. But Resmaa wont leave you there; all along the way he gives you the practices to do the work of healing into action. And he delivers all of this in riveting prose. Resmaa Menakem is a visionary, and his work is absolutely essential for antiracist practice. We need this book in as many hands as possible.

Robin DiAngelo, PhD,New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility and Nice Racism

Resmaa Menakem is one of our countrys most gifted racial healers. His brilliant new book could not be more timelya volume our country, our bodies, and our humanity desperately need. The Quaking of America offers wisdom and liberation, not only for Black, Brown, or Indigenous folk, but for all Americans.

Michael Eric Dyson, bestselling author of Entertaining Race and Long Time Coming

As author Resmaa Menakem makes plain, theres nothing in our society that makes expanding progress and social inclusion inevitable. These things happen because wise, brave, and committed people make them happen. But they also happen because spiritually well people make them happenpeople who understand the importance of self-care for the struggles ahead. The Quaking of America is more than an insightful book about the challenged state of American multiracial democracy. It is a users guide, an instruction manual on how to transform your body, yourself, and this country into their highest and noblest aspirations.

Keith Ellison, Attorney General of Minnesota

A storm is coming. But this is not a scare-mongering book intended to threaten your nervous system. Its just the opposite. This book is not just for Black, Indigenous, and white Jewish or Muslim bodies of culture who might be deemed the enemy in such a culture war. Regardless of the pigment of your skin, if you want to prepare your body to take ethical, spiritual action should you be forced to risk your life in order to choose sides, this is your book. Filled with somatic trauma-healing practices intended to build bodily resilience so your actions can live up to your antiracist intentions, this book could save your life, help you save other lives, or even prepare you to prevent a civil war or survive one. If youre an American and you believe in democracy and equal human rights for all beings, Im not exaggerating when I say this might be the most important book you read this century.

Lissa Rankin, MD,New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine and Sacred Medicine

Resmaa teaches us a new understanding and vantage point of our physical and personal relationship with people different from ourselves. He brings revolutionary insights to the value of connecting with depths of information our bodies hold onto, acquired through lifes experiences. He leads us to crucial and deeper connections with our inner truths and provides us with a pathway to building more meaningful relationships and empathy for all people.

Pete Carroll, Head Coach and Executive Vice President of the NFLs Seattle Seahawks

The Quaking of America is a profoundly needed bridge over todays troubled waters. Resmaa teaches us how to be present and embodied, even in conflict. This book should be in all our hands. For all our sakes, please read this book and share it with a friend.

Peter A. Levine, PhD, author of Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma, and In an Unspoken Voice

One two three BOOM! Precisely how Ive experienced Resmaas work in my life, our company, and in the world. He is a critical voice in reclaiming our bodies and thus our freedom.

Audrey Cavenecia, Chief Content Officer and award-winning producer at Amplify Voices (a Pete Carroll Company)

There really are no words that can adequately describe the pouring of incisive foresight and actionable content into a book as Resmaa Menakem has done. We would be remiss not to grasp The Quaking of America as a critical operations manual for the salvaging of this utterly imperfect democracy.

Rev. angel Kyodo williams, coauthor, Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation

AN EMBODIED GUIDE TO
NAVIGATING OUR NATIONS UPHEAVAL
AND RACIAL RECKONING

RESMAA MENAKEM

Central Recovery Press (CRP) is committed to publishing exceptional materials addressing addiction treatment, recovery, and behavioral healthcare topics. For more information, visit www.centralrecoverypress.com.

2022 by Resmaa Menakem

All rights reserved. Published 2022. Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Menakem, Resmaa, author.

Title: The quaking of America: an embodied guide to navigating our nations upheaval and racial reckoning / Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP.

Description: Las Vegas, Nevada: Central Recovery Press, [2021] | Summary: The New York Times bestselling author of My Grandmothers Hands surveys the deteriorating political climate and presents an urgent call for action to save ourselves and our country-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021052546 (print) | LCCN 2021052547 (ebook) | ISBN 9781949481662 (hardback) | ISBN 9781949481747 (paperback) | ISBN 9781949481679 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: United States--Social conditions--2020- | Political participation--United States--History--21st century.

Classification: LCC HN59.3 .M46 2021 (print) I LCC HN59.3 (ebook) I DDC 306.0973--dc23|eng|20211223

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.govI2021052546

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052547

Photo of Resmaa Menakem courtesy of Bruce Silcox Photography.

Small portions of this book appeared, in somewhat different form, in Resmaa Menakems Somatic Abolition blog for Psychology Today, at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/somatic-abolitionism. These are copyright 2020, 2021, and 2022 by Sussex Publishers, LLC.

Chapter Sixteen, The Essentials of White-Body Supremacy, appeared in significantly different form, under the title The Trauma Virus, in the anthology Together We Rise, edited by Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura (University of Minnesota Press, 2021). The essay is copyright 2021 by Resmaa Menakem.

Brief passages of this book originally appeared, sometimes in different form, in the author s books Rock the Boat, copyright 2014 by Resmaa Menakem, and My Grandmothers Hands, copyright 2017 by Resmaa Menakem.

Publishers Note:

This book contains general information about trauma, racialized trauma, somatic healing methods, and related matters. This information is not medical advice. This book is not an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider.