Abstract
Richardson offers a theoretical paradigm shift in thinking about Black feminist praxis and pedagogy. This chapter explores ways Black feminist pedagogy reimagines the classroom and the work scholars can do with students. While the Black feminist tradition has historically included self-care, particularly in understandings of the erotic (Sister outsider, The Crossing Press, 1984), much has been lost in translation on the ground, in the classroom, in our research, and within the Academy (But what do we think we’re doing anyway: The state of black feminist criticism(s) or my version of a little bit of history. In Changing our own words: Essays on criticism, theory, and writing by black women, Rutgers University Press, 1989). The radical Black feminist tradition can guide us toward pedagogies that lead to transformative learning, and allow us simultaneously to transformative justice when we keep radical self-care and healing central in the classroom.
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It should be noted that while much of my work focuses on Black women and other women of color, this pedagogical approach will be discussed keeping in mind that the classroom can oftentimes be a predominantly white space. Healing circles can still be discussed and practiced as it is useful for all students; however, marginalized students of color and trans/queer identified students may experience this method in complex and different ways in comparison to cisgendered white students.
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Historically, as many Black feminists have documented, Black women have had to struggle to tell their stories of resistance to race, gender, and class oppression (Bambara, 1970; Guy-Sheftall, 1990, 1995; hooks, 1981, 1990, 2000; Marable, 1996). However, in highlighting these stories, it is equally important that we remember that Black women’s experiences and identities are neither fixed nor necessarily unified, but rather diverse and in constant transition (Gabriel, 1998). Scholars such as hooks (1981, 1992, 1996), Collins (1998, 2005), DuBois (1903), Quashie (2003), Winn (2010), and Camus (1937), among others, have attempted to give the complexities of Black women’s lives focused attention.
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Elsewhere, I have examined the role of popular media representations of Black women, and argued that beauty is political and that hegemonic ideals and images of beauty impact Black women’s sense of self, sense of humanity, and sense of political voice and power (Richardson, 2012; Richardson-Stovall, 2012). Here, I further argue that racialized definitions of beauty have a compounded impact on Africana women, who are generously included in the pressure put on women to be beautiful, but simultaneously and “naturally” excluded as Africana by the criteria used to assess that elusive status. Further, popular media is a pedagogical site which many students are already well versed in, connected to, and impacted by. Thus exploring media representations as a site to investigate woundedness, media literacy, and healing is a connection that does not require much of a stretch.
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Richardson, J.L. (2018). Healing Circles as Black Feminist Pedagogical Interventions. In: Perlow, O., Wheeler, D., Bethea, S., Scott, B. (eds) Black Women's Liberatory Pedagogies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65789-9_16
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