What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker

A Memoir in Essays

By: Damon Young

Narrated by: Damon Young

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

A Finalist for the NAACP Image Award

Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A Washington Independent Review of Books Favorite of the Year

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.”

At its most devastating, it provides him reason to believe 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.

©2019 Damon Young (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

I loved this! I needed this and know of countless people that need it too

Such a great compilation of stories capturing blackness in America, told with such honesty and vulnerability. I have already recommended this book to multiple family members. Thank you for sharing your heart Damon.

A true gem of a book.

So funny, real and familiar! I loved listening to it. This book is really great!

Required Reading !

I felt he was telling my story in so many of his own stories. These essays are amazingly funny, real and nostalgic in many ways. I've followed Damon and his work for a while, but this collection was exactly what I needed.

Black People

This was a great memoir and a must read. People young and old need to read or listen to this book.

Maurice P.

Underestimated

This book moved me in ways I couldn't have imagined. I laughed. I cried. I found myself saying, " Damon, I can't with you" as if he was sitting next to me reading the book. There were so many lightbulb moments when I heard the words expressing the thing I couldn't articulate before. I didn't realize how much I needed to hear some of the epiphanies Damon had to finally start accepting myself, my reality, my space in this world. I'm so grateful for people like Damon who are willing to be vulnerable and give voice to the thoughts so many of us have. In a world motivated to shut us up, I'm grateful for the voices giving us life.

Awesome Insight into the Black American Male

This memoir in essays is a great insight into the true thoughts of your average, youngish, black male. Damon Young takes his time to filter through many of the key important topics of his entire life; from adolescence to adulthood (specifically fatherhood). He looks at those cultural tropes that generally define the specific milestones of growing up black in less affluent neighborhoods. He discusses how those milestones may or may not be self imposed or hyped up by just wanting to have that story to tell. Young gives you his raw thoughts and then shows how he comes to realize that those raw thoughts can be insensitive. As he matures, he comes to grips with the reality that he is not always the victim and sometimes his existence, being black and/OR male, can create a fear, concern, and sense of unease in others. Its an introspective book that uses real experiences and some mild humor to paint the picture of how much the average black male has to go through, what he has to think about, and what he has to bear in mind at all times.

My only criticism: His enunciation is horrible lol. Some of his words mush together as he reads somewhat quickly. Its easy to ignore about 98% of the time. But there are some words you wish you could get the full enunciation.

Damon Young is hilarious

I laughed so hard and so much. I loved the depth of the story but it is hilarious as well.

Funny and vulnerable

A very interesting and insightful story of Young's life, full of funny stories and a deep vulnerability.

Never has a title been truer

Damon Young has created a MASTERPIECE. What doesn't kill you makes you blacker is an ode to everything that the black experience is, in defiance of everything that others think that it is.

This book was an actual revelation. For anyone who has experienced the marvelous, terrifying, intersectional existence of being black… this book speaks to you. This book is for you. Throughout the book we see Damon divulge his proud moments, his shameful moments, and so many aspects of his life Always framed in the Lin's of being black, and how that blackness exists and is impacted by whiteness. I have never read a memoir that made me laugh out loud so often, and so heartily as this one did! There are many points in the book where you are rooting for Damon and hoping-- as if he is some scripted protagonist--that he gets his life.

This book does an incredible job of emphasizing how exhausting it is to be black in America. So many times in the book we hear Damon perseverate over myriad anxieties… whether those be in, how his blackness is perceived by others, how he perceives his blackness, or the realities of how that blackness can and does impact him, his family and everyone that looks like him. Still, through it all, he manages to keep a witty perspective which is both sobering and refreshing in the face of the world we live in.

This was TRULY a pleasure to read.

Didn't kill me

I really enjoyed this book, I was a little apprehensive but it turned out to be a great read.