Challenging Capitalistic Exploitation: A Black Feminist/Womanist Commentary on Work and Self-Care

This article explores complexities in teaching Black-authored material (especially Hip Hop lyricism) in premominantly non-Black college composition courses. It uses Barbara Smith's (1978) "Toward a Black Feminist Criticism" as a lens through which to define and examine those complexities. It offers antiracist pedogogal practices and posits withdrawal for reflection and self-care as a viable choice.

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For women of colour in social work: black feminist self-care practice based on Audre Lorde’s radical pioneering principles

Critical and Radical Social Work ◽

10.1332/204986020x15945755847234 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 405-421

Author(s):

Suryia Nayak

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Power Relations ◽

Work Values ◽

Self Care ◽

Care Practice ◽

Black Feminist ◽

Social Work Values ◽

Primary Strategy

This article offers women of colour in social work a black feminist self-care practice based on three principles from Audre Lorde’s work. The colonial situation of social work inevitably marginalises black feminist thinking and methods. In the context of chronic racist denigration, generic social work models of recovery, reparation and resilience equate to complicity with intersectional racism. Social work values and ethics alone are not enough. A material shift in power relations is required. Black feminist self-care practice responds to the physical, material and emotional impacts of silence, exhaustion and vilification of feeling that women of colour encounter in their living. In a call for women of colour in social work to gather together for mutual sharing of experience, this article affirms the power of collective dialogues as the primary strategy of black feminist self-care practice.

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Black Feminist Reflections on Activism

Departures in Critical Qualitative Research ◽

10.1525/dcqr.2016.5.3.126 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 126-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Karla D. Scott

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Emotional Labor ◽

Self Care ◽

Spiritual Health ◽

Black Feminist ◽

Feminist Activism ◽

Strong Black Women

Often experienced but rarely theorized, black feminist activism can be exhausting and the emotional labor debilitating. Yet often in the name of being “good” and “strong” black women who are “down” for the cause and our people, we keep going even when it hurts. Doing so continues the legacy of domination by relentlessly caring for others at the expense of ourselves. To protect and preserve our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health as black women, we must ask: How can we repurpose our strength to lead and support demonstrations against social injustices without continually sacrificing our wellbeing? Focused on summer 2014, I explore how the aftermath of my mother's death and living amid the fires of Ferguson, MO—linked to the killing of Michael Brown—sparked the realization that self-care is critical for black feminist survival.

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