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It’s Time for Radical Healing
How Black women can stop coping and start healing
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another” — Toni Morrison, Beloved
Existing at the intersection of gender and racial oppression, and the onslaught of misogynoir these two systems produce, creates an environment where Black women are simultaneously garnered hyper-visible and invisible. We are expected to know better, while at the same time having our expertise consistently questioned. We are expected to save democracy while concurrently being disenfranchised. We are chastised for being “too much,” while, in the same breath, asked to take up more space. When swimming in a pool of toxicity and dehumanization that insists on placing us inside of such a rigid binary, how do we as Black women — a group historically and systematically denied grace, respect, and compassion — affirm our own humanity? Most of my written work these days, whether focusing on the imposter syndrome or the value of rest, centers on wrestling with this question.
In the past, when I found myself pushing against my own humanity and limits, I’d tell myself to cope to the best of my ability. This loosely translated to enduring what I could to get to the next stop, which always seemed to fluctuate. Sometimes, it was enduring until I reached the end of grad…
