Black Women’s Journeys to Resilience

Abstract

Black women’s journeys to resilience are steeped in intergenerational experiences and multi-generational traumas, othering, racism, and environmental influences. In addition, each woman has her own lived experiences that shape her expressed energy in the world. The similarities of lived experiences of joy and pain does not diminish each woman’s individual and unique contribution to the collective experience. Using Black women’s voices to become visible as a distinct and vast population, is the intentional integrated process of this work. Women of African descent standout in every environment, as part of a collective, and as individuals, and yet, we are often overlooked. Our enrichment qualities and contributions are ignored, dismissed as minor, or devalued. We are expected to assimilate within gender normative boundaries, without culturally relevant support or consideration of marginalization, inequalities, racial traumatization, and other complex traumas. From the lens of light and shadow, I observed the voices of five women of African descent. Light represented their personal experiences of growth, development, and vulnerability. Shadow represented their isolated experiences of trauma, racism, othering, regression, and shame. There is a societal connection amongst these five women’s experiences and mine that represents a greater collective experience for many women of African descent. The four primary themes that emerged from this work are Regression: The Burden of Secrets; Proving Self-Worth: Better than Good Enough; Racism: The Discomfort of Difference; and Resilience: Like Lotus Flowers.