Black Feminism, a Holistic Trauma Framework and Healing

• In Event: Disentangling the Reproductive From the Liberatory: Trauma-Informed Practice for Racially Just Systemic Teaching

Abstract

In our recent collaborative project, we argued that thinking and talking about trauma from a white-dominant colonial logic is problematic because it masks systemic racial inequities and it prevents collective healing from colonial abuses (Authors, 2020; Dillard, 2000). In fact, the genesis of our holistic trauma framework came from the notion that healing from trauma in a racialized social context requires an act of collective, critical resistance whereby educators and researchers reject a white-dominant colonial perspective of trauma.

When we think of the full range of knowledge, skills and mindsets required to thrive in the 21st century, we cannot help but turn our attention to the revolutionary consciousness that Black feminism provides in our conceptualization of trauma, suffering and healing. Ultimately, we maintain that Black feminists are uniquely positioned to advance our collective discourses, practices, and research on trauma, suffering and healing.

In our paper, we share interview data from Black women researchers to illustrate how they utilize Black feminist pedagogical strategies and practices to identify trauma and collectively work through trauma in their classrooms with students. We think use our holistic trauma framework and its features to guide our analysis, while we also reserve the right to formulate new understandings outside of the framework. In that sense, we: (a) listen intently for different knowledges and experiences with trauma, suffering and healing; (b) mine for ways to heal through organic methods, and; (c) notice how healing can happen before, during and after a traumatic event.

Despite the attempted erasure of Black women by colonial forces, Black feminism unapologetically centers and values the standpoint, perspectives, and experiences of Black women, dismantling the pervasive white patriarchal viewpoint that is normalized and given universal status (Collins, 2000; hooks, 1981). Moreover, as a form of political resistance against white hegemonic colonial logic and violence that (re)traumatizes Black and Brown people through structural violence and racialized policies (Evans-Winters, 2019), Black feminists espouse a praxis of healing, self-care, and self-love (hooks, 1989, 2005; Lorde, 1988).

Authors

• Adan Alvarez, Rowan University

• Abiola Farinde-Wu, University of Massachusetts - Boston

• Candice Christa-Gaye Peters, Rowan University