You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience

Tanya Denise Fields carried shame throughout her life. She was ashamed of her appearance and the darkness of her skin. She felt shame for having six children with four fathers and for living with a man who physically, emotionally, and verbally abused her. Shame manifested in her body, but her body was also a source of her shame. After almost being murdered in front of her children by her partner, Fields embraces her own worthiness, packing up her children and moving to the PATH Homeless Assessment Shelter.

The four months she spends in the care of the Department of Homeless Services are brutal, and she worries that she made the wrong decision. However, she persists in confronting her shame by speaking out about her experiences on social media. Fields begins to understand that shame was her inheritance, passed on to her by white supremacy. The more she shares her story, the more other women speak up, too. After four months at the domestic violence shelter, Fields moves her family into an apartment with enough room for everyone, and she begins to embrace joy. Confronting The Nature of Shame was difficult work, but Fields grew comfortable with being uncomfortable.