Explores the restrictive myth of the strong black woman through interviews, revealing the emotional and physical toll this "performance" can have.

Major Health Crisis Among Black Women Generated from Systemic Racism “Marita Golden’s The Strong Black Woman busts the myth that Black women are fierce and resilient by letting the reader in under the mask that proclaims ‘Black don’t crack.’” ―Karen Arrington, coach, mentor, philanthropist, and author of NAACP Image Award-winning Your Next Level Life Sarton Women’s Book Award #1 New Release in Reference Meet Black women who have learned through hard lessons the importance of self-care and how to break through the cultural and family resistance to seeking therapy and professional mental health care. The Strong Black Woman Syndrome. For generations, in response to systemic racism, Black women and African American culture created the persona of the Strong Black Woman, a woman who, motivated by service and sacrifice, handles, manages, and overcomes any problem, any obstacle. The syndrome calls on Black women to be the problem-solvers and chief caretakers for everyone in their lives―never buckling, never feeling vulnerable, and never bothering with their pain. Hidden mental health crisis of anxiety and depression. To be a Black woman in America is to know you cannot protect your children or guarantee their safety, your value is consistently questioned, and even being “twice as good” is often not good enough. Consequently, Black women disproportionately experience anxiety and depression. Studies now conclusively connect racism and mental health―and physical health. Take care of your emotional health. You deserve to be emotionally healthy for yourself and those you love. More and more young Black women are re-examining the Strong Black Woman syndrome and engaging in self-care practices that change their lives. Hear stories of Black women who: Asked for help Built lives that offer healing Learned to accept healing If you have read The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health, The Racial Healing Handbook, or Black Fatigue, The Strong Black Woman is your next read.

Black women are strong. At least that's what everyone says and how they are constantly depicted. But what, exactly, does this strength entail? And what price do Black women pay for it? In this book, the author, a psychologist and pastoral theologian, examines the burdensome yoke that the ideology of the Strong Black Woman places upon African American women. She demonstrates how the three core features of the ideology--emotional strength, caregiving, and independence--constrain the lives of African American women and predispose them to physical and emotional health problems, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and anxiety. She traces the historical, social, and theological influences that resulted in the evolution and maintenance of the Strong Black Woman, including the Christian church, R & B and hip-hop artists, and popular television and film. Drawing upon womanist pastoral theology and twelve-step philosophy, she calls upon pastoral caregivers to aid in the healing of African American women's identities and crafts a twelve-step program for Strong Black Women in recovery.

Do you know who the woman is 'hidden behind the mask'? In this second book in The Woman Behind the Mask series, join 14 women as they share with you their journeys of living behind the mask and how they came to identify the woman "hidden." Each woman transparently displays their hurts, pains, disappointments, and more as you walk with them through their testimonies of unmasking. This book will inspire you to identify your true identity in Christ. Be empowered to take the first step towards freedom in HIM...then another...and then another. Invest in yourself by doing self-evaluation as you grow in HIM. Woman, it is time for you to unmask yourself and be all whom GOD called you to be!

"Sisters decry the shortage of good men and say there is no way she is settling for less than a good Black man. Not just a good one, but the BEST one: Denzel Washington. She, of course, has no idea what that means, what she wants or what a good Black man truly looks like." –from The Denzel Principle The Denzel Principle is the belief that the perfect man—in the form of Denzel Washington—actually exists off screen and that all Black women can snag a Denzel of their very own. So what does your very own Denzel look like? Well, he's rich but earthy, handsome but not pretty, doting but not docile, tough but vulnerable, political but not radical, passionate but not hysterical, ambitious but not overbearing, well-read but not nerdy, manly but not macho, gentle but not feminine, Black but not militant, sexy but not solicitous, flirtatious but particular...and all that on cue and in proper measure. Award winning reporter and cultural critic, jimi izrael offers to set the record straight – from a regular guy's point of view. The Denzel Principle is straight talk on everything from "Ways Women Can Break the Hold of the Dizzle," "Ways to Attract Mr. Right," to "Ten Reasons to Love Ordinary Black Men" and so much more.

DIVFrom a highly respected thinker on race, gender, and American politics, a new consideration of black women and how distorted stereotypes affect their political beliefs/div

The pioneering TV news journalist shares her extraordinary story in this acclaimed memoir: “A very important book” (Dr. Maya Angelou). As the first black female television journalist in the western United States, Belva Davis overcame the obstacles of racism and sexism, and helped change the face and focus of television news over the course of five decades. Born in the Great Depression to a fifteen-year-old Louisiana laundress, and raised in the projects of Oakland, California, Davis persevered to achieve a career beyond her imagination. Davis has seen profound changes in America, from being verbally and physically attacked while reporting on the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco to witnessing the historic election of Barack Obama in 2008. She reported on some of the most explosive stories in modern American history, including the Vietnam War protests, the rise and fall of the Black Panthers, the mass suicides at Jonestown, the onset of the AIDS epidemic, and many others. She encountered everyone from Malcolm X to Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Ronald Reagan, Huey Newton, Muhammad Ali, Fidel Castro, Condoleezza Rice, and more. Davis spent her career on the frontlines of the battle for racial equality, bringing stories of black Americans into the light of day. Still active in her seventies, Davis hosted a news roundtable at one of the nation’s leading PBS stations. In this way she remained engaged in contemporary journalism, while offering her unique perspective on the decades that have shaped us.