{"product_id":"what-doesnt-kill-you-makes-you-blacker","title":"What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Finalist for the NAACP Image Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Finalist for the Hurston\/Wright Legacy Award for Nonfiction\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the PEN\/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn NPR Best Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eWashington Independent Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e Favorite of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the host of podcast \"Stuck with Damon Young,\" 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\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in America\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhat Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker \u003c\/em\u003echronicles Young's efforts to survive while battling and making sense of the various neuroses his country has given him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's a condition that's sometimes stretched to absurd limits: 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; provoking the angst that made him question if \"being straight\" was something he could practice and get better at, like a crossover dribble; and generating the surreal experience of watching his Pittsburgh neighborhood getrify from predominantly Black to \"Portlandia . . . but with Pierogies.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd, at its most devastating, it provides him reason to believe that his mother would be alive today if she were white.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom one of our most respected cultural observers, \u003cem\u003eWhat Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker \u003c\/em\u003eis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ecco Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48836069916877,"sku":"9780062684318","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0557\/1529\/9533\/files\/imageloader_e3ce5ad3-34f5-400d-99c8-c2d4c822b297.jpg?v=1790992679","url":"https:\/\/booksatmidnight.com\/products\/what-doesnt-kill-you-makes-you-blacker","provider":"Books At Midnight","version":"1.0","type":"link"}