Week 9: Healing Loudly

We’ve been going through it y’all. There are very few groups that feel good about life in America right now. Women, veterans, artists, historians, journalists, financial analysts, LGBTQIA+, teachers, Palestinians, the entire African Diaspora, and so many more, are going through it. Pick a label, any label, and you’ll find that part of your identity under attack.

We are approaching recession and another F*** IT era.

It is open season. With #8647, #B613, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, the SAVE act, Ron Vara (I mean really, wtf!?!?!?), America is in a free fall.

But Karoline keeps telling us how lucky we are to have such an open and transparent(ly inept) administration.

Let’s not pretend like this isn’t emotionally heavy on the majority of Americans.

In a classroom, the teacher (the leader in those four walls), controls the tone. The tone impacts the mood. Fish rots from the head, as does American society. In our nation, our leaders set the tone, and their tone (as we witnessed these past few months) impacts the mood swings of our global economy.

The headlines might be buzzing about stock market swings and shifting trade policies, but beneath these broad economic trends lies a deeper, often unspoken reality: the disproportionate economic burden carried by Black women in America. It’s a weight compounded by systemic inequities and historical injustices, impacting not just bank accounts, but physical well-being and emotional health.

In a November 2022 report from the Urban Institute published by Diana Elliott and Fay Walker, Centering Black Women in Income and Wealth Policymaking, points out, “some interventions can unwittingly support those who already have social and economic advantages while simultaneously stalling or even halting the advancement of others.” This highlights a crucial flaw in many approaches to economic policy – they fail to address the specific, intersecting challenges faced by Black women at the nexus of race, gender, and class.

Mainstream narratives often attribute poverty to individual failings like “poor decision making and laziness,” conveniently ignoring the enduring legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discriminatory housing and labor practices, and a form of capitalism built on the exploitation of Black labor. The early exclusion of domestic and agricultural workers (disproportionately Black) from Social Security benefits is a stark example of how even seemingly universal programs can embed inequality from the start. This reminds us why cries of “All Lives Matter” miss the mark – they erase the reality that certain lives, specifically Black lives and particularly Black women’s lives, are systematically undervalued and face unique obstacles.

As the brilliant Patricia Hill Collins stated, “Taken together, the supposedly seamless web of economy, polity, and ideology function as a highly effective system of social control designed to keep African-American women in an assigned subordinate place.” (Collins 2000) This web manifests in countless ways: microaggressions, fewer advancement opportunities despite being “over-mentored” but under-sponsored, harmful stereotypes about Black mothers in the workplace, and the pervasive myth of the “Black Superwoman” that masks deep financial vulnerability – like the fact that nearly half of Black women aged 51-70 have zero assets. This lack of accumulated wealth impacts generations, hindering upward mobility and perpetuating cycles of economic instability.

A Path Towards Equity: Targeted Universalism and Healing

So, what’s the way forward? The Urban Institute brief champions the idea of Targeted Universalism: setting universal goals for well-being but designing targeted strategies to ensure all groups, especially those facing the most significant barriers, can achieve them. The brief powerfully argues that “by centering Black women in policy and programmatic thinking, we can more readily identify some of the largest barriers to income and wealth mobility for all Americans.” Policies like predictive scheduling, which offer workers more control over their hours, are examples of targeted approaches that can significantly benefit caregivers, a role disproportionately filled by Black women (the average age of Black caregivers being around 44.2 years old, often juggling work and care).

While policy change is essential, the journey towards economic justice also requires space for personal and communal healing. For too long, Black women have navigated these economic pressures without dedicated spaces to process the emotional and physical toll.

The ‘In My Skin’ Workshops: Creating Space to Heal and Connect

This summer, the In My Skin: Healing at the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Economy workshops is launching in Albany, NY and Oakland, CA. These workshops are intentionally designed as healing circles – safe, supportive environments where Black women can gather to:

1. Share Their Stories: Using workbooks with guided meditation and reflective writing prompts, participants will explore their personal narratives related to economic experiences.
2. Map Their Experiences: In pairs, women will share their stories and then engage in a powerful body mapping exercise. They will trace their bodies onto large paper and use words, phrases, symbols, and colors to identify where and how economic stress, struggle, resilience, and hope manifest physically. This process acknowledges the profound ways our economic lives are held within our bodies.
3. Process and Reflect: The workshop provides time for this deep reflection, and the workbook includes additional prompts for participants to take home, encouraging continued journaling and processing of their relationship with their economic circumstances.
4. Build Community & Find Resources: Beyond individual processing, these circles foster connection and shared understanding. Participants will also receive Community Resource Books highlighting local organizations in Albany and Oakland that address key issues like care-giving support, career development, financial literacy, and mental health services tailored to the needs of Black women.

These workshops are founded on the belief that healing happens in the community. They offer a much-needed space to acknowledge the burdens, validate the experiences, and collectively develop strategies for self-care and resilience in the face of ongoing systemic challenges. We recognize that we must create these healing spaces for ourselves.

Join Us:

If you are a Black woman in the Albany or Oakland area seeking a space to connect, share, and heal around your economic experiences, we invite you to learn more about the “In My Skin” workshops.

Sources:

Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Elliott, D., & Walker, F. (2023, January 30). Centering Black women in income and wealth policymaking. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/research/publication/centering-black-women-income-and-wealth-policymaking

Othering & Belonging Institute. (n.d.). Targeted universalism. https://belonging.berkeley.edu/targeted-universalism