Brown Skin Girls: Skin Shines and Tells a Story
Open AccessSexual assault is a widespread problem that disproportionately affects Black women. Yet, despite this reality, on an institutional and societal level, healing after experiencing sexual assault is often an issue of racial equity. In research and practice, many scholars and practitioners take a race-evasive, individualized, and psychological approach to meaning making and healing resources that silence and eclipse the needs and intersectional lived experiences of Black women. Therefore, this study acts as a counterstory in an effort to talk back to the narrative of “sameness” that pushes a White ciswomen pattern of meaning making and healing and promotes the erasure of undergraduate students who identify as Black cis women in the literature (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). The purpose of this basic qualitative study is to explore how Black college women make meaning of and engage in healing after experiences with sexual assault. The inquiry and data were approached and interpreted from a critical theoretical perspective, specifically, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and Black Feminist Thought. Findings suggest that meaning-making for the Black women in this study was rooted in the cultural socialization they received around Black womanhood. Secondly, healing for the women in this study was an interconnected individual and communal experience and involved understanding how cultural and sexual messages conflated with racist patriarchal beliefs about the bodies, behaviors, and worth of Black women. Such findings could provide a space for scholars and practitioners to better see how social location (e.g., intersections of identities and social domains/physical places such as family or university) impacts everyday reality, how race is experienced differently, and how that experience impacts meaning making and healing. Furthermore, these findings could also offer institutions of higher education the tools to value and integrate Black women’s experiences into policy and practice (e.g., crisis resources and services) which ultimately impacts retention.
- All rights reserved
Notice to Authors
If you are the author of this work and you have any questions about the information on this page, please use the Contact form to get in touch with us.
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Visibility | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Washington_gwu_0075A_15871.pdf | 2022-04-25 | Open Access |
|