This Will Be My Undoing

Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America

By: Morgan Jerkins

Narrated by: Morgan Jerkins

This Will Be My Undoing has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

LOVE!!!!! She could not be more different from me

But I have never felt so represented by a book!!
I am not young, black, smart enough to go to an Ivy, an "up and comer" or the daughter of divorced parents but I have never felt my feelings so voiced. The fact she actually reads her own work makes it even more powerful.
I remember the relentless pushing through high school with a Trident missile's targeting on getting out of my hometown! The anxiety of college where the heady knowledge, desire to study, learning, meeting inspirational leaders all could all be instantly drowned in a "does he like me/why doesn't he like me" panic attack. Parents and environment who instilled an incredibly toxic and out of synch view of sexuality.
Speaking of sex- some essays in this book are incredibly raw and honest. If you can not deal with a woman having a powerful sex drive or explicitly discussed medical issues this is NOT the book for you. However, listening to one chapter in this book is the first time I ever got a physical reaction where I wanted to cross my legs- like guys do when they see a baseball player catch a ball in the berries.
I loved it so much I also bought the paperback!

Deep, insightful, explanatory, expressive

Thank you Morgan Jenkins for writing this book. I loved every single minute of it.

Awesome

Great read. it'll make you cry and think about your own experiences in this life.

Raw, honest, real

Morgan gives an unapologetic, cutting, and cathartic experience of being a black woman in a white patriarchal society. It hurts, it stings, but it is the most real thing I have listened to in many a year.
The book is not laced with much hope, but I don’t believe that was the point; just taking a raw gaze at black feminism for what it is. What we do with it, is up to us.
I thank Morgan for her encouragement to survive as we always have, and to thrive with the gifts we have always had, too, as well as thrive by not picking up society’s burdens.
Very, very well done. M

Powerful, insightful, and deeply engaging exploration of race and gender

In this remarkable memoir, Morgan Jerkins narrates her journey from being a young Black girl who desperately desires to be white and to merit male attention to being a badass Black feminist who is at home in her own skin. In a manner that epitomizes intersectionality at its best, Jerkins utilizes her positionality as a Black woman to illuminate the ways in which sexism and racism intersect to impact the lives of Black women on a quotidian basis, not just in the US but across the globe. Her middle-class upbringing, Ivy League education, and global experiences provide a unique lens through which to view how privilege and oppression coexist in complex ways for Black women and girls. Jerkins manages to combine astute analysis of critical race and gender studies with highly transparent reflections upon her own experiences. She bravely delves into details about female body image, health, and sexuality that few writers would. At times, I must admit it was too much for some of my southern Protestant impulses. But Jerkins’ sharing is neither narcissistic nor a tool meant only to shock readers. Her descriptions of her embodied experience are always connected to larger social issues, demonstrating how the personal and the political collide in deeply intimate ways.

Jerkins’ narrative deserves every bit of the accolades (and more) that have been given to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me.” Indeed, the two are excellent companions to read together.