Support and Self-Care Resources for People of Color
As Audre Lorde stated, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."
The mental, physical, and emotional tolls of living in a world that does not embrace your identity as a person of color are exhausting. There is no single method for practicing self-care and cultivating support for your personal health, but the resources listed below may serve as inspiration.
Resources for Support and Self-Care
Source: Emotionally Restorative Self-Care: People of Color - Black People - African Americans by Brandi Jackson Wellness, YouTube
My Grandmother's Hands by
The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze. My Grandmother’s Hands is a call to action for Americans to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body. Author Resmaa Menakem introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.
ISBN: 9781942094487Publication Date: 2017-08-21
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by
In the 16th century, the beginning of African enslavement in the Americas until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and emancipation in 1865, Africans were hunted like animals, captured, sold, tortured, and raped. They experienced the worst kind of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse. Given such history, isn't it likely that many of the enslaved were severely traumatized? And did the trauma and the effects of such horrific abuse end with the abolition of slavery? Emancipation was followed by one hundred more years of institutionalized subjugation through the enactment of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, peonage, convict leasing, domestic terrorism and lynching. Today the violations continue, and when combined with the crimes of the past, they result in yet unmeasured injury. What do repeated traumas, endured generation after generation by a people produce? What impact have these ordeals had on African Americans today? Dr. Joy DeGruy, answers these questions and more. With over thirty years of practical experience as a professional in the mental health field, Dr. DeGruy encourages African Americans to view their attitudes, assumptions, and behaviors through the lens of history and so gain a greater understanding of how centuries of slavery and oppression have impacted people of African descent in America. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome helps to lay the necessary foundation to ensure the well-being and sustained health of future generations and provides a rare glimpse into the evolution of society's beliefs, feelings, attitudes and behavior concerning race in America.
ISBN: 0985217278Publication Date: 2017-09-11
The Inner Work of Racial Justice by
An essential mindfulness-based approach to increase our mental and emotional capacity to heal from injustices done against us Law professor and mindfulness practitioner Rhonda Magee shows that the work of racial justice begins with ourselves. When conflict and division are everyday realities, our instincts tell us to close ranks, to find the safety of our own tribe, and to blame others. The practice of mindfulness--paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way--increases our emotional resilience, giving us the space to become less reactive and to choose how we respond to injustice. For victims of injustice, mindfulness calms our fears and helps us to exercise self-compassion. Magee shows us how to slow down and reflect on microaggressions--to hold them with some objectivity and distance--rather than bury unpleasant experiences so they have a cumulative effect over time. She helps us develop the capacity to address the fears and anxieties that would otherwise lead us to re-create patterns of separation and division. It is only by healing from the injustices done against us and dissolving our personal barriers to connection that we develop the ability to view others with compassion and to live in community with people of vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints. Incorporating mindfulness exercises, research, and Magee's hard-won insights, The Inner Work of Racial Justice offers a road map to a more peaceful world.
ISBN: 059308392XPublication Date: 2019-09-17
Self-Care for Black Women by ISBN: 9781507217313Publication Date: 2022-01-11
Pleasure Activism by ISBN: 9781849353267Publication Date: 2019-03-19
Black Fatigue by ISBN: 9781523091300Publication Date: 2020-09-15
The Mental Health Mixtape for Black MenISBN: 9798532805019Publication Date: 2021-07-07
You Are Your Best Thing by ISBN: 9780593243633Publication Date: 2022-01-25
The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health by ISBN: 9781684034147Publication Date: 2020-05-01
