The current study investigates the relationship between Black activism and self-care among five Black womxn scholar-activists. Through collaborative autoethnography, we demonstrate that one byproduct of our Black activism is a cultural-relevant form of self-care that works to buffer the psychological impacts of racism and other forms of oppression. Findings suggest that our pathway to Black activism involves an “awakening,” which furthers identity development, and facilitates connectedness and self-love, underscores the salience of representation, and creates opportunity for broad social and structural change. This is to suggest that despite the potential deleterious psychophysiological consequences that accompany the engagement in activism, we have identified five unintended self-care benefits that play a central role in bolstering activists’ psychological well-being.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.