Noted blogger, essayist, and astute social observer, Damon Young, penned a blunt, honest, and humorous memoir. As the genre demands, Young wrote about his life in “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker.”He employed social commentary essays to give the reader a microscopic look at his upbringing, his anxiety, and his family.
As the title implies, Young’s social commentary centered on race issues in America; specifically, the white supremacist attacks on African Americans. One does not expect such a racially charged discussion to include humor, but Young creatively gave the reader a humorous look at the effects of institutionalized racism on his life and the life of his parents. All that was revealed in the memoir was not funny; there were some heart-wrenching moments, there was fear, there was disdain, there was revolt, and there was hope.
What is sure to bring about controversy was Young’s discussion on the terms nigger and nigga. He took the stance that the terms differ with usage and user. He explained situations where the terms were cultural, and he went into detail about the power (positive and negative) associated with their usage. There was a barbershop scene which encapsulated his discussion. The scene spoke to an inclusion of white supremacy that will raise the reader’s eyebrows and give pause for serious thought. In that brief scene, black female objectification and white supremacist acceptance were laid bare at the reader’s feet.
The African American community’s classism was witnessed in Young’s dating. Being a product of working-class parents and being “Pittsburg rich” and Kool-Aid raised, he felt less than those who were raised by African American professionals, the “PHDeez.” Despite achieving entrepreneurial successes, the financial stability of upper middle class avoided him and his family. The difference in classes became apparent in the struggles of his family. His working-class family lost a home while the parents of the “PHDeez” were debating portfolio investments. In the memoir, Young never lost sight of his working-class status or the social vulnerability and financial unpredictability of the class. His uphill battle against being “broke” remained a constant throughout the essays.
Young’s discussions of his personal anxieties (largely stemming from not being black enough and being thought of as gay) is another constant throughout the essays. Humor abounds during these essays with discussions about wanting to be called nigger, to brawling over bacon, to driving while black, and to hoping that athletic ability and a pretty girlfriend will stop accusations of homosexuality. Although Young wrote about his personal anxiety, the reader easily acknowledges his linking to the black community’s anxiety. Anxiety caused by believing that black men must be hard, believing that black women are never children, and believing that tenderness is not for black people; these myths, these falsehoods, led and continue to lead a community to illness.
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