Strong black woman

People need you.

So there's so, there's so many, there's so many other layers in that, like, you know, the strong black woman schema, you know, where we have the double bind around, you have to be strong as a black woman because you, This society isn't for us.

We're not going to be valued.

We have to protect ourselves.

unless I am competing with the slave experience.

Then I have nothing to talk about.

But there's also the double bind of the whole strong Black woman schema.

And if it's good or bad, a lot of us have internalized that as a badge of honor.

women of color or Black women.

I think that is such a struggle because we feel like we have to be this strong Black woman.

And we feel that way because of maybe society, maybe we see our parents or our moms as only strong.

So that's the only way that we know how to be.

There's a name for it in the research.

It's called the strong Black woman schema.

And honestly, I call it the lie we've been sold since birth.

This schema shows up in how Black women navigate romantic relationships, how we parent, how we move through the world.

It means you've been carrying a script that was never yours to carry.

Let me tell you what I learned from the research.

The strong Black woman schema didn't just fall out of the sky.

It's historically rooted.