Menakem's grandmother's hands

When Resmaa Menakem was a little boy, he asked his grandmother why her hands were so different from his. She explained that she started picking cotton when she was four years old, and the cotton had sharp burrs that cut her hands. As she got older, her hands became thicker and thicker until she was able to pick the cotton with no pain.

These hands and the pain they have endured represent the physical and psychic pain that African Americans have endured over the centuries.

The soul nerve

Mental health experts call it the vagus nerve or the wandering nerve, but Menakem believes that "soul nerve" is the most apt and "sticky" name. This organ is the heart of the nervous system--it reaches through the heart, lungs, stomach, spleen and throat. The soul nerve connects to the brain stem (which Menakem calls the lizard brain...