Silenced Knowing: An Intersectional Framework for Exploring Black Women's Health and Diasporic Identities

Abstract

Understanding the needs of Black women within a cultural and medical framework which recognizes the impact on health and well-being on the spaces where culture, health, and expectation intersect remains a challenge. In the UK, Black women are often more likely to have poor prognosis, worse outcomes and greater morbidity from treatable and preventable health conditions than their white peers. UK researchers have struggled to find a culturally appropriate safe methodological framework to help explore the challenges faced by Black women and their families in safeguarding their health, particularly around sensitive issues such as sexual and reproductive health. This article presents a relatively new intersectional framework which has been use for conducting health research on culturally sensitive health issues. The Silences Framework introduces the notion of "Screaming Silences." Screaming Silences (or Silences) reflect the unsaid or unshared aspects of how beliefs, values and experiences of (or about) some groups affect their health and life chances. The article will explore how, the framework aligns with existing Intersectional approaches and how it could be used to expose intersectional nature of issues which influence and inform both individual and group understandings Black Women's health using examples relating to sexual health and life chances for Black women in the Diaspora.

Physical distancing is related to fewer electronic and in-person contacts and to increased loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic among older Europeans

“…On the one hand, maintaining physical distance can protect them from infections and potentially save their lives [ 5 ]. On the other hand, social contacts are a fundamental human need, with far-reaching effects on health and well-being [ 6 – 10 ], and prolonged social isolation increasing the risk of loneliness [ 11 , 12 ]. Physical distancing guidelines may hamper the ability of older adults to maintain in-person contact with their loved ones, resulting in increased loneliness [ 13 , 14 ].…”

Challenges, implications and the future of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts

“…Joseph ( 2020 , p. 73) was likewise moved to write that arts educators are “determined to be successful and demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity and ambiguity”. However, globally there have been issues with equity and access; connectivity to the internet, expertise with technology, and access to arts supplies that favour wealthier families, with low socio-economic status being, as always, a “huge risk factor” (Haase, 2020 , p. 1; Joseph, 2020 ). However, Sikkema et al, ( 2021 , p. 21) argue that the pandemic has also provided an opportunity to bring the Arts from the margins of the curriculum to the centre of learning and to “work with students and communities to rethink what school can and should look like”.…”

“…During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the major themes of duality, revolution and resurrection that Dicken’s explores are all too familiar as local, national and international governments struggle to respond to the most serious economic crisis since the Second World War (OECD, 2020 ). Haase ( 2020 , p. 1) contends that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and reinforced the “existing social, socio-economic and socio-spatial inequities in our cities”. As the famous lines from Dickens illustrate, during periods of social and political upheaval, people draw on a range of opposites, contrasts and provocations to explore and articulate their understanding of their world, both at a local and international context.…”

Reproductive decision-making of Black women living with HIV: A systematic review

“…Black women living with HIV are positioned in society in relation to their sexual health, and their social identity is often contextualized by a stigmatizing chronic disease. 59 However, their social identity also includes multiple sources of oppression, such as race, ethnicity, gender, income, education, health status, and other factors 60 , 61 related to “racialized and gendered subjects” marginalized by power structures. 59 Intersectionality offers a lens to see where this “power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.” 62 Within the narrow context of reproductive justice, 63 power structures can oppress decision-making 64 and marginalize people living with HIV.…”

“… 59 However, their social identity also includes multiple sources of oppression, such as race, ethnicity, gender, income, education, health status, and other factors 60 , 61 related to “racialized and gendered subjects” marginalized by power structures. 59 Intersectionality offers a lens to see where this “power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.” 62 Within the narrow context of reproductive justice, 63 power structures can oppress decision-making 64 and marginalize people living with HIV. 65 For these reasons, intersectionality has analytical relevance for sensitive topics, such as reproductive health, 66 , 67 that can be synthesized from the literature to identify the social experiences resulting in marginalization 68 and the positional variability within and between groups 69 causing health inequities.…”