Social hierarchies cause damage. At the same time, people who have been damaged by this world—thrown away, marginalized, traumatized, oppressed—are more capable of apprehending harmful social patterns, precisely because they’ve needed to be vigilant about how the world works.
For too long, though, those with long-held rights and entitlements have claimed that survivors are biased about the very topics on which they have the greatest expertise.

This powerful collection of essays reveals a complex social landscape—​a living map of pain, survival, and compassion. A mix of personal memoir and sociological acumen, each piece seeks to build roads to a more equitable and loving collective culture of body sovereignty, racial justice, and gender liberation. They demonstrate the humane insights, approaches, and knowledge of those on the receiving end of inequity and violence, those whose “objectivity” on issues of oppression has been consistently maligned despite their having the most to teach us.