10 Quick Things About What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker, an Upcoming Memoir in Essays From Damon Young

Yes, I did. Suggested Reading The Ever-Growing List of Lawsuits Against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Take a Look Inside Michael Jordan’s Former Chicago-Area Mansion, Which You Can Now Airbnb For This Heart-Clutching Price Celebrities Known to the Culture As ‘BlackFamous’ Video will return here when scrolled back into view Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should…

Yes, I did.

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Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?

It’s right there in my bio, man. But just in case you didn’t read—and you very obviously didn’t—in the fall of 2016, I signed a two-book deal with Ecco Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. This is the first book.

It’s a look at some of the absurdities, angsts and anxieties of existing while black in America. It’s also about masculinity, white supremacy, economic anxiety, Pittsburgh, basketball, parenthood, my parents, porn, the beauty and utility of being a nigga and the word “nigga,” lies, and bacon. (Yes, there’s an entire chapter where a plate of buffet bacon might be the main character in it.) Some of it is totally, completely, absolutely ridiculous. The first chapter (“The Nigger Fight Story”) for instance, is about how, when I was 17, I hadn’t yet been called a nigger to my face. But I wanted to, just so I could beat up the white person who called me one and have a suitable nigger-fight story like the great ones my parents had.

And some of it is very sobering, as “Living While Black Killed My Mom” definitely is.

Right?

Yup. Of course, some of the themes addressed in the book have been discussed on VSB before, but this is all new stuff.

Honestly? Vulnerable as fuck. There’s stuff in there I’ve never actually admitted to anyone and just barely (and just recently) admitted to myself. I’m excited and I’m scared.

You know, that actually wouldn’t be the worst analogy ever.

My cousin, Sarah Huny Young, of course.

March 26, 2019.

Of course. Here’s the link. Preorder the fuck out of it.

Straight From The Root

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