The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation's Upheaval and Racial Reckoning

by Resmaa Menakem MSW, LICSW, SEP

Overview

The New York Times bestselling author of My Grandmother's Hands surveys America's deteriorating democracy and offers embodied practices to help us protect ourselves and our country. 

"All of us need to read this book—and then act on it.”—Angela Rye, NPR political analyst and former CNN commentator

". . . a volume our country, our bodies, and our humanity desperately need."—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Entertaining Race and Long Time Coming

In The Quaking of America, therapist and trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem takes readers through somatic processes addressing the growing threat of white-supremacist political violence.

Through the coordinated repetition of lies, anti-democratic elements in American society are working to incite mass radicalization, widespread chaos, and a collective trauma response in tens of millions of American bodies. 

Currently, most of us are utterly unprepared for this potential mayhem. This book can help prepare us—and possibly prevent further destruction. This preparation focuses not on strategy or politics, but on practices that can help us

Build presence and discernment in our bodies

Settle our bodies during the heat of conflict

Maintain our safety, sanity, and stability in dangerous situations

Heal our personal and collective racialized trauma

Practice embodied social action

Turn toward instead of on one another

The Quaking of America is a unique and perfectly timed guide to help us navigate our widespread upheaval and build an antiracist culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949481662
Publisher:	Central Recovery Press, LLC
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP, is a leading voice in today’s conversation on racialized trauma. He created Cultural Somatics, which utilizes the body and resilience as mechanisms for growth. As a therapist, trauma specialist, and the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions, a leadership consulting firm, Resmaa dedicates his expertise to coaching leaders through civil unrest, organizational change, and community building. He is the author of the national bestseller My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies.

Table of Contents

1 What Is This Book? 1

2 Why a War Is Being Planned 8

3 What the War Plan Looks Like 23

4 Bodies and Logic 31

5 Your Body Is the Key 34

6 Your Body's Six Intelligences 38

7 The Five Targets of Blame 47

8 Active, Passive, and Unwitting Complicitors 52

9 Clean Pain and Dirty Pain 60

10 Why the Coming War Will Be Racialized 66

11 What Trauma Is and Isn't 73

12 The Five Trauma Responses 82

13 You Are Already the Enemy 87

14 .The Wisdom of Your Body 91

15 Your Body Broadcasts and Receives 96

16 The Essentials of White-Body Supremacy 101

17 What Are Reps? 119

18 Two Types of Reps 123

19 How Can This Book Help Prevent a Civil War? 129

20 Racialized Trauma 133

21 The Five Anchors 139

22 Plantation Ethics 146

23 Primal Reps 154

24 White Bodies and the Energies of Race 159

25 Your Soul Nerve and Soul Muscle 168

26 Becoming a Somatic Abolitionist 176

27 Quaking 190

28 Wokeness, Allyship, and Complicity 194

29 Cultivating Resource 204

30 No Failure, Only Practice 220

31 Peril and Possibility 229

32 Once It's Clear We're at War 233

33 Moving Your Body into the Street 240

34 White Bodies and Hand-Wringing 251

35 When White Bodies Say "Tell Me What to Do" 255

36 Physically Protecting Yourself and Your Family 261

37 Expect Situations, Alliances, and Relationships to Shift 270

38 Religious Groups Will Support and Attack You 287

39 Listen to Black Women 292

40 The Legacy of White-on-White Oppression 300

41 When White Bodies Deputize Other White Bodies 307

42 When White Bodies Turn on Each Other 312

43 Policing White Rage: A Life Rep for White Bodies 316

44 Living with Uncertainty Ambiguity and Lost Battles 322

45 Creating a Living, Embodied Antiracist Culture 327

46 Emergence 334

47 The End of the War 338

48 The New Reconstruction 342

49 Y2K, COVID-19, and Somatic Abolitionism 347

50 Vital Resources and Next Steps 352

Afterword: Us 363

Deepening Your Experience of This Book 369

Acknowledgments 370

About the Author 374

Editorial Reviews

"Resmaa Menakem is one of our country's most gifted racial healers. His brilliant new book could not be more timely—a 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, author of Entertaining Race and Long Time Coming

“Resmaa Menakem’s The Quaking of America is a brilliant and effective guide to embodied social change. All of us need to read this book—and then act on it.”—Angela Rye, NPR political analyst and former CNN commentator

"This is a book that will wake you up, excite, and terrify you. But Resmaa won’t 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

"The Quaking of America is more than an insightful book about the challenged state of American multiracial democracy. It is a user’s 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

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

“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 of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation

“Resmaa brings revolutionary insights to the value of connecting with depths of information our bodies hold onto, acquired through life’s 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 NFL’s Seattle Seahawks

“The Quaking of America is a profoundly needed bridge over today’s troubled waters. Resmaa teaches us how to be present and embodied, even in conflict. 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 I’ve experienced Resmaa’s 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)

“This book provides all that is needed to undertake the needed transmutation of 400 years of conditioning underlying white body supremacy. With My Grandmother’s Hands, Resmaa gave us a map to racism across the terrain of our emotions in our body; in The Quaking of America he gives us a compass to find our way home to collective healing. Resmaa’s unique and unflinching approach shows us how to begin metabolizing the collective pain of racism in this country while clearly illustrating the consequences of not doing so.”—Eve Ekman, PhD, Director of Cultivating Emotional Balance and a Senior Fellow at the University of California Berkeley Greater Good Science Center

“The Quaking of America gives us concrete answers on how to process the individual and collective sociopolitical trauma Americans have been living under, while painting a picture of a near future that will call for Americans to choose between continuing a legacy of political corruption and racialized violence or the emergence of a new American culture rooted in racial equality and healing for all.”—Anayansi Prado, award-winning filmmaker and educator

From the Publisher