Every time I see a post asking Black women to “take care of ourselves” in superficial ways like putting on a face mask or taking a bubble bath, I feel personally attacked. I’ll even say out loud to no one in particular, “OK, but can you lower your voice?” when a post hits a nerve. The reaction is partly because I am fortunate enough to be able to do these things and I just don’t, and also because for so many Black people, the system isn’t set up for them to be able to take a break. Freelance writer
Justice Namaste tweeted about the well-intentioned but misguided nature of this statement, especially in the context of the pandemic and the past year of uprisings against anti-Black racism. “... acting as though there is much that individual Black people can do to mitigate the physical & mental harm caused by the constant threat of state violence is silly,” she wrote. “I’m so fucking TIRED of the onus being put on Black people to ‘find a way to heal’... This is a time when the concept of self-care is rendered essentially useless without community care, this is not the kind of thing that *can* be survived alone, and it is also the kind of thing that is all the more devastating in isolation.” Eromosele put it like this: “The realities of racism cannot be outrun, out-bought, or pampered away, only lived with, yet simultaneously resisted.”