I absolutely love the concept of the body-land as described by the author in the fifth chapter. In other anthropology classes, I have been introduced to the concept of the body as a site for structural violence, a carrier of the manifestations of social marginalization and disempowerment. However, equating the body to the landscape in which it exists is a powerful metaphor that takes into account the subjectivities imposed upon the body. “A body-land that does not carry the constraining disciplines of colonization is almost impossible to imagine. We are so disciplined into gendered, racialized, sexualized ways of being; we are the product of the colonial imagination.” (63) Our bodies become the landscape home to colonization and violence. This is where Lara’s understanding of queerness comes alive to me. To most, the word queer is inextricably tied to notions of sexuality that stray from (or oppose) heteronormativity. However, queerness in many realms of black liberation theory is rather equated with otherness. For example, disability may be considered a form of queerness as it strays from normative views of a “good” body. Since blackness has historically existed in the margins of American society, it essentially becomes synonymous with queerness from a theoretical standpoint. Most importantly, black liberation relies upon this understanding of body-lands and awareness of how our bodies hold the manifestations of generational trauma. I personally feel that Lara’s spiritual basis for her book gives the reader a better framework from which to understand black liberation. It is not limited to placing black people in power but involves granting black people empowerment.