Abstract

This study seeks to deepen our understanding of the survival adaptive behaviors, particularly features of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS), identified by Black women professionals who exist at the margins in academia and society. To date, exploration of posttraumatic growth has not been researched concomitantly with PTSS. By examining these variables collectively, this study’s model provides an original contribution to a growing but insufficient literature on Black women professionals who endure institutional racism. Using the Listening Guide, this study presents data from seven (7) Black women professionals in higher education. The study finds interviewees adopt Angry Black Women and Strong Black Woman schema, and PTSS features as a survival strategy stemming from gender discrimination rooted in proximity to Whiteness and habitual attacks on their professional acumen. Congruently, learnings revealed (1) Identity and Positionality, (2) Generational [In]visibility, (3), Professional Rage Located, and (4) Voices of PPTTG—Prayers, People, Trials, Tribulations and God. Dismantling White Supremacy must center Black women's survival herstories and healing at the intersection of anti-Black racism and hidden systematic policies. Practice models that nuance PTSS trauma-informed assessments, the addition of PTSS to the DSM, and widely accepted African-centered paradigms are essential for this wave of race work

Highlights

  • This study seeks to deepen our understanding of the survival adaptive behaviors, features of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS), identified by Black women professionals who exist at the margins in academia and society

  • Interview questions used to frame PTSS (DeGruy’s 2005) in the current study include: (1) “How would you describe the role of controlling, race-based stereotypical images and their impact on the psychological functioning of Black women professionals?” (2) “What is your perception of gendered racism for Black women professionals?” (3) “How would you describe posttraumatic growth (PTG) in Black women professionals?”

  • This study extends the existing voice-centered relational (VCR) literature to analyze the relationship of Black women professionals to PTSS and Posttraumatic Growth (PTG)

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Summary

Introduction

This study seeks to deepen our understanding of the survival adaptive behaviors, features of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS), identified by Black women professionals who exist at the margins in academia and society. From the lynching of Mary Turner and her unborn baby, the execution of Breonna Taylor, to institutionalized racism endured by Black women professionals in academia, White supremist values continue to serve to oppress, marginalize, isolate, govern, police, subjugate, reduce, and justify control and violence against Black women (BeauboeufLafontant, 2009; Collins, 2000; Spencer & Perlow, 2018). In academia, these efforts show up as overt and subtle experiences of discrimination, including silencing of Black women’s. For Black women in academia, racialized subtleties show up as unreasonable service demands, marginalization of scholarship, uneven parity of opportunities that converge to reinforce SBW schemas, and hierarchical structures that usurp their voices and social mobility

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