STUPID BLACK GIRL

An American African woman’s essays about her spirituality, sexuality, traumas, and journey to healing herself.

Redux is a first-generation American whose Muslim parents emigrated from West Africa and who has thus had to navigate multiple worlds growing up. She shares stories of herself as a child who experienced a celebration of Black women’s beauty through the plentiful artwork in her house—thanks to her father’s being an antique art dealer—while later experiencing racism and colorism in a world insistent on telling her she was inferior. She uses her personal experiences and those of others close to her to highlight how these attitudes impacted her perspectives on spirituality, sexuality, womanhood, and Blackness. She has sought to find the ways in which her multiple worlds overlapped and complemented each other for her own necessary healing from various traumas. She shares her revelations here to benefit all who may be interested in engaging. The sure-to-be controversial title—the inspiration for which is described in the first essay—may be what initially draws readers in. But Redux’s use of frank, sometimes-biting, but consistently thoughtful language, coupled with her openness about her own life stories and lessons learned, shows that she is anything but stupid. McCarthy’s illustrations—her visual responses to Redux’s words—add another layer for consideration to this thought-provoking work.

An important and eye-opening contribution to conversations about global identity politics.