There is a heaviness to the history and experiential reality of Black life that has truly and quite recently been revised (revisionist history) by Black voices and scholars to disrupt the centuries-long Western history that has denoted our culture as less than, as the people who have never quite rebuilt, healed, and found an equal footing in colonial lands. “Why Am I Like This?” and “Trafficking in Antiblackness” are two nonfiction works released this year that are structured to correct the destruction that slavery and misogyny have caused in the past.
“Why Am I Like This?: How to Break Cycles, Heal from Trauma, and Restore Your Faith” by Kobe Campbell (Thomas Nelson)
“There are such intangible lived things that Black women have experienced,” said author and therapist Kobe Campbell in an interview with the AmNews. “A lot of what I do is experiential therapy. I primarily serve Black women, and the therapy includes [our] body and movement that help [us] process the emotions that you become aware of. Black women are so intelligent…I was just giving them the language for what they already knew or what they were already feeling.”
“Why Am I Like This?” chronicles the pain and trauma of a young Kobe, who found healing through a mysterious text message from a friend that led her to seek solace in God and Christianity. This book is not just faith-based; it is a testament to the work Campbell currently does in her therapy practice, which is centered on Black women’s healing
“Trafficking in Antiblackness: Modern-Day Slavery, White Indemnity, and Racial Justice” by Lyndsey P. Beutin (Duke University Press)
“Drawing on contemporary antitrafficking visual culture and media discourse, [Beutin] shows how a constellation of media, philanthropic, NGO, and government actors invested in ending human trafficking repurpose the history of transatlantic slavery and abolition in ways that undermine contemporary struggles for racial justice and slavery reparations,” according to Duke University Press in describing the depth and important work of Lyndsey Beutin.
Beutin unfolds the important modern reformation of history of transatlantic slavery by examining ways that the history’s narrative has been written to benefit the privilege of elite racial justice organizations.
You can pre-order ‘Why Am I Like This?’ ahead of its April 4th release via Kobe’s website.