Black girls earlier experiences with pubertal development increases their risk of for long and short term negative health outcomes such as depression, disordered eating, and physical wellbeing. Dr. Rona Carter, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan and expert on Black girls' pubertal development share here knowledge in this episode. She highlighted the ways in which race and gender-specific mechanisms, protective factors, and social influences can support the well-being of Black girls during puberty.

How would you score on the paper bag test? Does skin color influence how you are able to move through this world? This podcast explores the ways skin color influences Black women's wellbeing particularly as it relates to relationships with others. We discuss with Dr. Margaret Hunter the concept of skin color as a form of social capital; this concept explain how beauty, defined through light skin, works as capital and an evaluation tool on the dimensions of education, income, and spousal status.

https://www.psychologyofblackwomanhood.com/post/black-women-s-negotiations-of-colorism

Hip Hop Feminism is a dynamic and critical paradigm that addresses the intersection of race, gender, and class within the context of Hip Hop culture. Initially emerging as a response to the pervasive issues of misogyny and the underrepresentation of Black women in the Hip Hop industry, Hip Hop Feminism is a transformative movement that seeks to challenge and reshape the cultural landscape of Hip Hop by centering the experiences and perspectives of Black women and promoting empowerment, love, and social consciousness.

Dr. Aisha Durham, a Black feminist cultural critic, is a Professor of Communications and Media at the University of South Florida. She has written numerous books and articles examine Black womanhood in Hip Hop, including co-editing the first hip hop feminist anthology Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminist Anthology and NCA award-winning monograph Home with Hip Hop Feminism: Performances in Communication and Culture. Dr. Durham is also a former contributor to the Crunk Feminist Collective, and an advisory board member for the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip Hop and Rap. To democratize knowledge, Dr. Durham writes public scholarship and provides cultural analyses about hip hop for news and entertainment outlets, such as CNN, NPR, Ms. Magazine, and The Times of London.

To get more details about the resources and readings discussed in this podcast, click here.

Mainstream psychology in the U.S. has overlooked critical aspects of the study of Black women since the foundation of the field. The documented inequities and research biases have led to the creation of psychological knowledge that not only fails to capture Black women’s realities but reflects a lack of cultural humility and competence. Beyond simply providing a rationale for the book this podcast draws from, this episode highlights the importance of centering sociohistorical experiences in psychological research from the positionality of Black women themselves Drs. Danielle Dickens of Spelman College and Dionne Stephens of Florida International University, also share the emotional labor and costs they paid while developing this critically important textbook.