Psychosocial approach and health of black women: vulnerabilities, rights and resilience

Abstract

This article presents a critical overview of theories and practices that aim to enhance black women's health focusing on the concept of resilience. Beyond the academic literature, mostly from Pyschology, this text mobilizes different sources about racial relations, including the social movement production. Black women are exposed to human rights deprivation, to the inefficency of governmental programs that should guarantee the right to education and to comprehensive health care, among others. They are also frequently exposed to racism and sexism that affect their health. The concept of "resilience as a process" adopted in this article, a result of both the critical reflection on the literature and of research data, supports the adoption of a psychosocial approach resulting from vulnerabilities analysis integrated to a human rights based framework. The conclusion calls for initiatives that include the practical knowledge of black women and for valuing their collective and transgenerational experiences that has supported the overcome of their exposure to extreme vulnerable contexts, experiences that enhanced their processes of resilience. In this perspective, there is a need to consider not only black women's assistance and individual care but also their different experiences of belongingness, their trajectories, their networks, communities and territories.