scholarly journals Black girls navigate the physical and emotional landscape of the neighbourhood: Normalized violence and strategic agency

2020 ◽  
pp. 147332502092034
Author(s):  
Claudia Bernard ◽  
Anna Carlile
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Friendship Groups ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Young Black Women ◽  
Everyday Realities ◽  
Emotional Landscape

This article considers how young Black women living in gang-affected neighbourhoods in an urban area in England, UK navigate their safety in public and private spaces, and how these spaces overlap and intersect. Drawing on a project with 18 participants aged 14–19, the research seeks to understand how the participants inhabit, navigate and strategize for their safety through their narratives of life and survival in an unsafe neighbourhood. Findings indicate that they experience sexual harassment in public spaces and gang-associated sexual and physical violence as common, accepted aspects of their everyday realities, from as young as 12. The narratives suggest that participants navigate complex friendship groups to protect each other and their families through tight codes of trust, secrecy, privacy and conflict-management strategies. This article seeks to bring attention to how young women utilize their agency to illuminate the coping strategies they draw on to navigate their physical environments. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for interventions.

scholarly journals HerStory: Narrative Journeys of Young Black Women with Eating Disorders

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
stephanie hawthorne
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Social Criticism ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Young Black Women

<p></p><p>Little is known of eating disorder (ED) pathology in Black females. It has long been perceived that Black females do not struggle with EDs; yet growing research suggests the opposite in this sub-population. This study explored ED development in three young Black women and uncovered adolescent experiential factors that were significant in their ED journeys. In the form of narrative inquiry, triangulation of interviews, observations, and abstracts were used to restory their ED accounts and glean a deeper understanding of their personal journeys. Findings revealed that preadolescence was a pivotal period when body image became a prominent focus rooted in social criticism that grew more powerful than their self-images could bear, adversely affecting their self-concept as Black girls. Trauma, sociocultural and sociopolitical variables, and comorbid psychological illnesses were instrumental in their ED developments and placed unhealthy emphasis on their bodies and mental states. Conclusions include 1) childhood experiences presented salient triggers for the development of EDs; 2) cultural distinctions influenced ED practices; 3) EDs were systems of control; and 4) salient factors prevented early intervention of EDs. Black women are coming forward to share experiences of conflict and hope to help further understand ED pathology in the Black community.</p><br><p></p>

Steeped in Shame: An Exploration of Family Sexual Socialization Among Black College Women

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 450-467
Author(s):  
Seanna Leath ◽  
Jami C. Pittman ◽  
Petal Grower ◽  
L. Monique Ward
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
College Women ◽  
Sexual Development ◽  
Religious Orientation ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black College ◽  
Sexual Socialization ◽  
Young Black Women ◽  
Negative Messages ◽  
Sexual Exploration

Most research on Black girls’ sexuality emphasizes reducing risk behaviors, with less attention to dimensions of healthy and normative sexual development, such as body positivity. To address this gap, we sought to explore the diversity of sexual messaging young Black women received during their formative years. Using consensual qualitative research methods, we explored how 50 Black college women (ages 18–24 years) described their sexual socialization within family contexts in relation to their current sexual beliefs and behaviors. The following themes emerged from the data: messages of discretion, negative messages about physical appearance, messages of deference, messages of abstinence, absence of sexual messages, messages of body positivity, messages of egalitarianism, messages of sex positivity, and messages of sexual distrust and dismissiveness. Black families’ sexual socialization processes were also influenced by ethnicity, social class, and religious orientation. Our findings situate Black women’s family sexual socialization practices within a sociohistorical framework and highlight the need to support Black girls’ healthy sexual development by eliminating fear, shame, or taboo around sexual exploration. Education and advocacy efforts should focus on communicating openly with youth to help them make more positive decisions about sex and bodily autonomy.

Exploring Black Girls’ Subversive Literacies as Acts of Freedom

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 456-481
Author(s):  
Lauren Leigh Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Racial Equity ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Consciousness Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Young Black Women

Research on Black girls’ and women’s literacies reveals how they utilize literacy practices to resist oppression and define their identities. Yet, these practices are frequently absent from or marginalized in formalized schooling spaces. In addition, Black girlhood is rarely placed at the center of equity interventions in schools. As the history of activism in the United States is tied to Black women’s struggles for freedom, research and practice involving racial equity must be attentive to the literacies and activism of Black girls. Grounded in Black feminist theory, this article describes a longitudinal study of the critical consciousness development of two young Black women as they engaged in distinct literacy practices to navigate and resist racial oppression in high school. The author analyzes interviews as well as literacy artifacts to explore how these girls enacted critical, digital, and subversive literacies to challenge intersecting oppressions of race and gender in a predominantly White, suburban school.

scholarly journals HerStory: Narrative Journeys of Young Black Women with Eating Disorders

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
stephanie hawthorne
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Social Criticism ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Young Black Women

<p></p><p>Little is known of eating disorder (ED) pathology in Black females. It has long been perceived that Black females do not struggle with EDs; yet growing research suggests the opposite in this sub-population. This study explored ED development in three young Black women and uncovered adolescent experiential factors that were significant in their ED journeys. In the form of narrative inquiry, triangulation of interviews, observations, and abstracts were used to restory their ED accounts and glean a deeper understanding of their personal journeys. Findings revealed that preadolescence was a pivotal period when body image became a prominent focus rooted in social criticism that grew more powerful than their self-images could bear, adversely affecting their self-concept as Black girls. Trauma, sociocultural and sociopolitical variables, and comorbid psychological illnesses were instrumental in their ED developments and placed unhealthy emphasis on their bodies and mental states. Conclusions include 1) childhood experiences presented salient triggers for the development of EDs; 2) cultural distinctions influenced ED practices; 3) EDs were systems of control; and 4) salient factors prevented early intervention of EDs. Black women are coming forward to share experiences of conflict and hope to help further understand ED pathology in the Black community.</p><br><p></p>

scholarly journals Black Adolescent Girls' Use of Literacy Practices to Negotiate Boundaries of Ascribed Identity

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
LeeAnn M. Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
The Novel ◽  
High School English ◽  
English Class ◽  
Arts Curriculum ◽  
Young Black Women

This qualitative study highlights the interconnectedness of literature, literacy practices, identity, and social positioning within a framework of a common enactment of multicultural education: adding literature by and about people of color to the language arts curriculum. The study provides a window on the meaning-making of six 16-year-old Black girls as they studied The Bluest Eye (Morrison, 1994) in their high school English class. Drawing primarily on group and individual interview data, this research shows participants spending little time analyzing the literature per se. Instead, spurred by incidents in the novel, they used the text as a launching point from which they analyzed their own life experiences. Socially positioned as young Black women, participants have found that they are expected by people in their school, community, and outside their community to behave in particular ways as a reflection of their assumed values and ways of being in the world. They also have experienced the effects of a Eurocentric standard of beauty, so central to the novel, being applied in their own lives. As they read and discussed the text, participants represented and constructed identities as they validated, modified, or contested the ability of others' ascriptions of identity to act as boundaries in their lives. This research shows how ascribed identities serve as boundaries, how literacy practices enable negotiation of those boundaries, and how participants' co-constructed identities as young Black women mattered to them as they studied literature with which they were expected to “connect.”

Centering “Grace”: Challenging Anti-Blackness in Schooling Through Motherwork

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 142-157
Author(s):  
Terri N. Watson ◽  
Gwendolyn S. Baxley
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Black Children ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Racial Biases ◽  
Black Girlhood ◽  
Patricia Hill Collins ◽  
Educational Advocacy

Anti-Blackness is global and present in every facet of society, including education. In this article, we examine the challenges Black girls encounter in schools throughout the United States. Guided by select research centered on Black women in their roles as mothers, activists and school leaders, we assert that sociologist Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of Motherwork should be an essential component in reframing the praxis of school leadership and in helping school leaders to rethink policies, practices, and ideologies that are anti-Black and antithetical to Blackness and Black girlhood. While most research aimed to improve the schooling experiences of Black children focuses on teacher and school leader (mis)perceptions and systemic racial biases, few studies build on the care and efficacy personified by Black women school leaders. We argue that the educational advocacy of Black women on behalf of Black children is vital to culturally responsive school leadership that combats anti-Blackness and honors Black girlhood. We conclude with implications for school leaders and those concerned with the educational experiences of Black children, namely Black girls.

Abstract 19005: Staying Connected: a CVD Risk Intervention for Young Black Women

Circulation ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 130 (suppl_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo-Ann Eastwood ◽  
Debra K Moser ◽  
Nabil Alshurafa ◽  
Lynn V Doering ◽  
Karol Watson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Cardiac Risk ◽  
High Risk Population ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Cvd Risk ◽  
Lipid Panel ◽  
Young Black Women

Fifty thousand Black women, disproportionately affected by cardiovascular disease (CVD), die annually; 49% of Black women ≥ 20 years have CVD. Implementing proactive risk reduction is essential. The purpose of this community - based pilot was to test the feasibility of a program combining self-care education with wireless individualized feedback via a unique smartphone designed to appeal specifically to young Black women (YBW). Methods: Using church-based recruitment, 49 YBW (aged 25-45 years, 60% single) were randomized to treatment (TX) and control groups by church site. The TX group participated in 4 interactive self-care classes on CVD risk reduction. Each participant set individualized goals. Risk factor profiles (waist circumference (WC), BP, lipid panel by Cholestech [Alere]), medical and reproductive history and a battery of psychosocial instruments were assessed prior to classes and 6 months later. Participants were given smartphones with embedded accelerometers and WANDA-CVD, an application that delivered prompts and messages specifically for this pilot. For activity monitoring, phones were worn on the hip during waking hours. Participants obtained and transmitted BP measurements wirelessly via the phone. Changes over time were measured with paired t-tests and linear regression controlling for age and weight. Effect sizes were calculated using Cohen’s D. Results: In risk factor profiles, significant differences favoring the TX group occurred in DBP, WC, and TC/HDL ratio; similar changes in triglycerides yielded a medium-large effect size (Table). TX participants had greater drops in stress, anxiety, and better adherence to heart healthy habits. Conclusion: These interim pilot data validate the feasibility of a combined education/wireless monitoring-feedback program in YBW. Further testing in a large randomized trial is warranted to determine long-term effects on behavior change and cardiac risk profiles in this high risk population.

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