Overview

"From the cofounder of VerySmartBrothas.com, and one of the most read writers on race and culture at work today, a provocative and humorous memoir-in-essays that explores the ever-shifting definitions of what it means to be Black (and male) in America. For Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in America is enough to induce a ceaseless state of angst where questions such as ""How should I react here, as a professional black person?"" and ""Will this white person's potato salad kill me?"" are forever relevant. What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker chronicles Young's efforts to survive while battling and making sense of the various neuroses his country has given him. It's a condition that's sometimes stretched to absurd limits, provoking the angst that made him question if he was any good at the ""being straight"" thing, as if his sexual orientation was something he could practice and get better at, like a crossover dribble move or knitting; creating the farce where, as a teen, he wished for a white person to call him a racial slur just so he could fight him and have a great story about it; and generating the surreality of watching gentrification transform his Pittsburgh neighborhood from predominantly Black to ""Portlandia . . . but with Pierogies."" And, at its most devastating, it provides him reason to believe that his mother would be alive today if she were white. From one of our most respected cultural observers, What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker is a hilarious and honest debut that is both a celebration of the idiosyncrasies and distinctions of Blackness and a critique of white supremacy and how we define masculinity."

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9781982610678

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Reviews

"Young delivers a passionate, wryly bittersweet tribute to Black life in majority-white Pittsburgh...A must read. -- ""Booklist (starred review)"" Young's charm and wit make these essays a pleasure to read; his candid approach makes them memorable. -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" Simultaneously providing racial love for the spectacular idiosyncrasies of blackness and a devastatingly funny critique of racism, Damon is the antidote to what ails this nation. -- ""Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author"""

Simultaneously providing racial love for the spectacular idiosyncrasies of blackness and a devastatingly funny critique of racism, Damon is the antidote to what ails this nation. -- Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author

Author Information

Damon Young is the cofounder and editor in chief of VerySmartBrothas, a senior editor at The Root, and a columnist for GQ. His work has appeared in outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, Slate, Salon, The Guardian (UK), New York magazine, Jezebel, Complex, EBONY, Essence, USA Today, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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