A review by drchanequa
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America by Morgan Jerkins

5.0

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.