Forward and Introduction - Black Women`s Health Imperative

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Health First!
The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide
Eleanor Hinton Hoytt and Hilary Beard
Release date: February 2012 •
Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-3695-2 • $27.95
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HEALTH FIRST!
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HEALTH FIRST!
The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide
ELEANOR HINTON HOYTT
and
HILARY BEARD
Distributed by Hay House, Inc.
Carlsbad, California • New York City
London • Sydney • Johannesburg
Vancouver • Hong Kong • New Delhi
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Copyright © 2012 Black Women’s Health Imperative
Published in the United States by:
SmileyBooks, 250 Park Avenue South, Suite #201, New York, NY 10003 • www.SmileyBooks.com
The authors of this book do not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, mental, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The
intent of the authors is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for well being in
body, mind and spirit. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the authors and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions..
Distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com • Published and distributed in
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Design: Cindy Shaw, CreativeDetails.net
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for their permission to reprint previously published material:
American Obesity Association for the AOA Fact Sheet, Health Effects of Obesity.
Bertice Berry, Ph.D.: Excerpt from A Year to Wellness and Other Weight Loss Secrets, Freeman House Publishing 2011.
Gloria Wade-Gayles, Ph.D.: Excerpt from My Soul Is A Witness: African American Women’s Spirituality, Boston:
Beacon Press 2002.
Terrie Williams: Excerpt “From Stressed to Depressed.” Reprinted with permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon
& Schuster, Inc., from BLACK PAIN: It Just Looks like We’re Not Hurting. Copyright ©2008 by Terri Williams. All
rights reserved.
Iyanla Vanzant: Excerpt from “Saying Yes To Your Life.” Copyright ©2005 by Iyanla Vanzant. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from “10 Contemplations.” Copyright ©2002 by Iyanla Vanzant. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic
process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or
otherwise be copied for public or private use—other than for “fair use” as brief quotations embodied in articles
and reviews—without prior written permission of the publisher.
The opinions set forth herein are those of the author, and do not necessarily express the views of the publisher or
Hay House, Inc. or any of its affiliates.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011942988
Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-3695-2
Digital ISBN: 978-1-4019-3696-9
13 12 11 10 4 3 2 1
1st edition, January 2012
Printed in the United States of America
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To the fearless and faithful Black women
who started the National Black Women’s
Health Project in 1983.
You taught us that the health and wellness
of Black Women—MATTERS.
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Authors’ Note
Some names in this book have been changed to protect the privacy
of those who graciously consented to share their experiences and
life stories. We are grateful for their willingness to participate.
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CONTENTS
Foreword by Byllye Avery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
PART I: YOUR JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE’S STAGES
Chapter 1: Adolescence (10 to 19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 2: Young Adulthood (20 to 39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 3: Adulthood Midlife (40 to 64) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 4: Mature Adults (65+) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
35
65
89
PART II: BEATING THE ODDS
Chapter 5: The Top Ten Health Risks for Black Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Diabetes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Heart Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
HIV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kidney Disease. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Obesity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
STDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stroke. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
111
113
143
155
167
175
185
193
207
225
235
PART III: SELF-CARE IS IMPERATIVE
Chapter 6: Healthy Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 7: Healthy Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 8: Healthy Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 9: Self-Care Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
247
283
311
331
Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
About the Black Women’s Health Imperative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
347
351
365
379
397
399
400
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FOREWORD
By Byllye Y. Avery
Founder, Black Women’s Health Imperative
“Magic.” That’s how I’ve come to describe that First National Conference on Black
Women’s Health at Spelman College that launched the National Black Women’s Health
Project in June 1983. When we put the word “Black” in front of “Women’s Health” in the
call to come together, something amazing happened. Over two thousand Black women came
together to start conversations about topics previously thought unspeakable: emotional and
sexual abuse, domestic violence, and abortion. We talked about becoming pregnant as teenagers and how being mothers too early meant being mothers for too long. We knew we had
to take the risk of talking openly and honestly about things we’d never talked about before.
We simply knew that, in Fannie Lou Hamer’s famous words, we were “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” We knew that those words described our frustrations, our anguish, and
our need to connect with other Black women who felt the same urgent drive to find the tools
that would engage us in changing our lives.
This gathering—the start of what would become the National Black Women’s Health
Project—grew out of the collective consciousness of a nation itself in the grip of change:
forced by the civil rights movement to face up to racial discrimination, by the women’s
movement to challenge gender discrimination, and by the women’s health movement to
push back against a medical system that treated its patients like children. Across the nation,
women were moving from being passive receivers of care to being active participants, demanding reproductive rights, a demystification of medical care, and access to information
about their own health.
In my work in Florida at the Gainesville Women’s Health Center and Birthplace, a
freestanding birthing center, I noted that while most white women used the preventative
care services, few Black women did. Health conferences and meetings lacked Black women’s
perspectives, because we were not present in significant numbers. It occurred to me that we,
Black women, had never had an opportunity to talk among ourselves about our health, our
issues and concerns. We lived in isolation, not talking about the struggles we faced.
Back then most of us were unaware that we were snared in a conspiracy of silence, keeping ourselves victims of the oppression that racism, sexism, classism and homophobia fueled.
Mistakenly believing that we somehow brought about the bad things—rape, molestation,
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other forms of violence—that happened to us, we kept secrets and thought it was our “business.” What we did not understand was that our silence allowed the oppression not only to
continue in our lives, but to persist into future generations. We needed a space where we
could break the silence, a place to talk about our lives and learn about the lives of others in
order to find the tools that would engage us in changing our lives.
Many of us confessed that chronic conditions were plaguing our bodies and that we had
watched our families struggle to survive with diseases that access to good care could have
prevented. Single mothers talked about the financial burden of rearing children alone—some
due to absent fathers, some to incarceration by an unjust justice system, and others to low
self esteem compounded by their community’s low expectations. We explored our relationships with our own mothers and fathers. Lesbians talked about being outcasts in their families, many choosing to live a closeted life, others taking the risk of being “out.” We worried
about the examples we were setting for our children by remaining in dysfunctional marriages
supposedly for their sake.
We confronted these burdens and fears head on, long before they became popular topics
on daytime television. We learned that these issues were not “our business”—they revealed
our community’s systemic sexism and disregard for the lives of women. Many of us were
angry at the world for slavery and other injustices. Some of us were angry at our families and
many of us were angry at ourselves. These were difficult issues to grapple with. We persevered
and made some of the changes we sought.
For the first ten years, hundreds of women met monthly in self-help groups to plan
a path to a healthier existence in body, mind, and spirit. As groups became stronger, they
extended their learning to others through conferences, retreats, and sister circles. Health
information contextualized by the lived experiences of Black women led to understanding
that was meaningful and lasting. Ultimately we were able to make a difference in mainstream
public health strategy.
Now, almost 30 years later, our world has changed, yet we still face some of the same
conditions that challenged us then. Only now we live in an even more polarized political
climate exacerbated by a global financial recession and high unemployment rates that render us all vulnerable. Some insurance companies leave us without coverage when we need it
the most, forcing us to put off getting care that compromises our health and drives up costs
when we finally are treated.
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Foreword
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The good news, however, is that we have a new health-care law—an institutional path
that will give us access to better care and put us more in charge of our own health. We will
no longer have to make copayments for preventive services such as mammograms, Pap tests,
and testing for STDs—it’s up to us to get the screenings. If we get sick, we’ll no longer need
to worry about our policies being cancelled or unreasonable limits set on the amount of care
that’s covered—it is our right to be covered. Our sick children cannot be denied coverage,
and starting in 2014 no one with a preexisting condition will be denied health insurance—
we deserve health insurance across the lifespan, at all times. Adult children will be able to
remain on their families’ policies until their 26th birthdays—our young adults can now get
the care they need. Seniors who are on Medicare Part D will pay less for medications and
have better access to primary and preventive care—we must oppose all attempts to take away
safety nets for our seniors.
Health First! gives us a way to look at our health and our lives in stages and across the life
span, starting with the uncertainties of adolescence, continuing through the unpredictable
challenges of adulthood, and ending with the time when we are experiencing our greatest
losses in our senior years. Taking care of ourselves over a lifetime requires that we adopt
a holistic approach: healthy eating habits and preventative care started early can ensure a
healthier life, and we learn that it is never too late to start. Access to high-quality care is essential to gaining and maintaining optimal health. A healthy mind fosters good relationships and
makes us receptive to loving and being loved. And developing our spirituality enables us to
recognize that we can draw on power and strength beyond ourselves.
As we discovered in 1983, when we listen to the stories of women’s lives, we understand
the factors that influence our decisions, shape our lives, and ultimately provide a path to
empowerment and good health—and Health First! is filled with women’s stories. I encourage
you to read them, celebrate them, and learn from them. Use this book and share it with your
family and friends. Let them know that you have made a commitment to living your best
life. Continue to be a powerful force by putting your Health First!
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INTRODUCTION
Michelle Obama may be our nation’s first Black First Lady, and Oprah Winfrey
may have been crowned as the most powerful female force in the American media
and among the wealthiest women in the world, but the average Black woman struggles. She struggles to get a decent education, earn a living wage, and sustain meaningful relationships. She struggles to gain the social support she needs, fight society’s
negative perceptions of her, and deal with her own low self-esteem. She struggles to
take care of her children and loved ones, and she struggles even more to take care of
her physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.
The economic downturn that’s still unfolding around the globe has intensified
Black women’s challenges, especially our health challenges, even more than it has for
other Americans. Why? Because Black women have grappled with hazardous health
conditions for generations. A combination of structural racism, cultural conditioning,
environmental factors beyond our control, and—let’s face it—our own choices has
caused over 70 percent of us to become overweight or obese, limiting our ability to
enjoy our lives and increasing our risk of developing chronic and debilitating diseases,
such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. In 2010, Black
women’s mortality rate was 33 percent higher than White women’s.
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Truth is, Black women’s lives play out within a “perfect storm” of distress, oppression, and misguided optimism. We pay a heavy price for this inconvenient truth. Yet
in spite of the odds stacked against us, we continue to function as the defiant backbone of our nuclear and extended families: as single moms; caregivers to elders; and
health gatekeepers for our doctor-avoiding men. So when our well-being wanes, it
rocks the foundation of the whole Black community. The health crisis we’re facing—
not least the rapid spread of HIV in places like Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and
Southeast Washington, D.C.—has placed us at a tipping point where Black American
survival is on the line.
Over the decades, the Black Women’s Health Imperative’s focus groups, roundtables, and surveys have confirmed that when you ask a Black woman about the
state of her health, she will find a way to tell you she’s healthy even if she’s not.
That’s why we developed this book. We know that deep in our spirits, Black women
long to be well.
Although Black history is riddled with pain and loss, it is equally shot through
with overwhelming triumphs accomplished against all odds when a critical mass
of people challenged the status quo and stepped forward to galvanize meaningful
change. Black women continue to “beat the odds” and claim success in American life
in ways that few would have ever predicted. Attaining good health and quality health
care may be formidable challenges, but these are challenges that we believe Black
women can meet. The fact that others often don’t really “see us,” or “don’t think much
of us,” doesn’t mean that we can’t affirm our value and dare to love ourselves.
When you ask a
Black woman about
the state of her health,
she will find a way to
tell you she’s healthy
even if she’s not.
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It’s time for Black women to kick old
dysfunctional behaviors to the curb no matter where or who we come from. It’s time
to adopt a new attitude of uncompromised
commitment to our own well-being. We
must move forward—sister by sister and one
woman at a time!
As we educate ourselves about our health,
we can break through our denial and discover
that it is never too late to put our health first.
Introduction
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Because, as elder-sister Maya Angelou says, “When you know better, you do better.”
Our deep desire to do better is what the Imperative has learned from Black
women over the past three decades. Black women have told us loud and clear that
they want to improve their personal health. No one with a chronic condition that
ran in her family said she wasn’t concerned for her own health too. We believe that
this understanding of the need to change and “do better” is rooted in the core belief
that we, as Black women, can take charge of our own lives, our own wellness, and our
own self-care.
How to Use This Book
Our lives unfold in a continuous process, with growth marked by changes in our
bodies that are reinforced by cultural milestones such as high-school graduation and
life transitions such as marriage, childbearing, and divorce. Yet many of us don’t see
this big picture; we’re too busy living from problem to problem and from paycheck
to paycheck.
When you think of your life and your health
as a process, not just a series of disconnected
events, you begin to understand the implications
of the changes you need to make for your own
health. Decisions you make in one moment have
consequences not just for that moment, but in
the next moment and the next. At any point in
your life, your health is whatever you have made
it, building or eroding it in small increments
over time, depending upon how you’ve loved
and treated yourself.
Decisions you make
in one moment
have consequences
not just for that
moment, but in
the next moment
and the next.
In Health First! we look at Black women’s
lives through the life cycle, starting with adolescence and ending with our senior years, paying particular attention to our health as
we develop and mature. We look at typical life decisions many Black women make,
against the backdrop of the social and cultural factors that shape our circumstances,
and show how the consequences of these decisions play out in our health. We also
look at the choices we face in caring for ourselves at every level, in body, mind, and
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So what do we say stands
between us and good health?
spirit. We hope to help you understand how the choices you make build on themselves, helping you to look good and feel strong or causing you to decline into poor
health and even debilitating illness.
The information that we draw on in this book to paint a credible portrait of Black
women’s health comes from experts, researchers, current data published by the federal
government, and, most importantly, Black women themselves. It’s also informed by
the results of almost three decades of the Imperative working with women, conducting polls and surveys, and holding roundtables and focus groups. And for the first
time, we are releasing some of the findings from a 2007 Harris survey on the Health
Attitudes and Behavior of Black Women, commissioned by the Black Women’s
Health Imperative.
Quite honestly, some of what we learned in the survey alarmed us. For one thing,
we learned that Black women have a very narrow definition of health—over half of us
believe that being healthy merely means not having any chronic diseases, disabilities, or
injuries. By this definition, a woman can be medically unhealthy, experiencing obesity,
pre-diabetes, pre-hypertension, depression, and unsustainable levels of stress, but still
believe she’s well.
Denial, misunderstandings, and outright naiveté: this deadly combination keeps
many of us unaware of impending danger to our well-being, so that we respond far
too slowly—or don’t respond at all—to some very real threats. Because Black women
tend to form the backbone of our families, our denial jeopardizes our health and our
life but also our children and communities.
So what do we say stands between us and good health? Some women in the
survey said they couldn’t afford medical treatment or preventive care; some said
they didn’t have access to good care (or to a gym); some said they didn’t have the
time; and others admitted that they weren’t motivated to maintain or improve their
well-being.
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It’s never too early to start learning how your actions today affect your health tomorrow. The good news is that it’s never too late to learn how to care for yourself the
way you need and deserve. The really good news is that it’s never too late to shed the
fear, to reconnect, to take that bold and courageous step toward wellness.
The book is organized into three distinct sections. Part I: Your Journey through
Life’s Stages examines Black women’s lives as they unfold through the life cycle, from
adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood into elderhood. Each life stage describes the unique issues that Black women often face during that time of life and
how the choices we make (or don’t make) to take care of ourselves during one life
stage set us up to experience either good health or health problems in later stages.
We encourage you to read all the chapters in Part I, not just the one about the
stage of life you’re in right now. If you’re an older woman, be willing to start at the
beginning: the chapter on adolescents may give you deeper insight into your own
formative years, or provide some good ideas for helping a young girl in your life lay a
foundation of good self-care, or offer encouragement to turn your health around now.
If you’re younger, read ahead: the voices of your older sisters and elders can inspire
and teach you to make prevention one of your top priorities. A solid prevention plan
can help you take control of your well-being and shape the vibrant, healthy life you
want to live.
Part II: Beating the Odds zeros in on the Top Ten Health Risks that Black women
face. You’ll learn why these risks need to be on your personal health radar so that you
can avoid becoming another sad statistic. Armed with new facts about Black women’s
health challenges and resources specific to Black women’s health-care, you’ll be empowered and more prepared than ever to deal with any health condition that places
you at risk.
While we’ve included a wide variety of Black women’s perspectives throughout
the book, here we’ve intentionally shared the thoughts and experiences of women
who have beat the odds and made choices to manage their disease, change their behavior, and inspire others along the way. Each entry in this section opens with a story
of one woman’s health challenge and how she was able to turn the tide. We hope that
by reading about the challenges faced, the decisions these women have made, and the
lifestyle changes that got them there, that you’ll discover some answers to questions
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What makes it
so difficult
to be healthy,
Black, and female
in America?
that you may not even know you had. Our
contributors’ willingness to share their stories
in order to shine a light on a new path and
support you in transforming your own situation makes us very proud.
In Part III: Healthy Living, we examine
Black women’s health through a different lens,
taking a close look at what it means to be
healthy in body, mind, and spirit. We explore
what makes it so difficult to be healthy, Black,
and female in America. Our hope is that once you understand what you’re up against,
you won’t internalize your struggles so deeply or wrongly take them for personal failings. Rather, we hope you’ll feel empowered not only to make a change, but to make
the kind of change that places your health first.
This section encourages you to explore what living in health would look like in
your life, so that you know what to aim for as you redefine your goals and commitments. We outline the elements of self-care that can lay the foundation for your
personal transformation: from your physical health (including eating and exercise) to
your mental and emotional well-being to your spiritual fulfillment or peace of mind.
We also offer practical guidelines for working with your doctor and taking an active
part in your own treatment—one of the most critical steps in self-care.
Putting Yourself First
Today more than at any other time over
the past three decades, it is imperative that we
commit to taking good care of ourselves. If
we are to survive the challenges facing Black
people—if we are to protect our children from
being left behind in American society and
defend our communities against the threats
of joblessness, financial crisis, violence, HIV/
AIDS, homelessness—we must place our
self-care above all the other responsibilities in
our life. We need to end the cultural legacy
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We must place our
self-care above
all the other
responsibilities
in our life.
Introduction
11/17/11 7 44 PM
of slavery that demanded that we attend to the needs of others and give our own
health first priority. If we don’t, in time we won’t be able to attend to anyone’s
needs at all.
This may be the most troubling aspect of a culture in which Black women’s health
is devalued: we continue to place the health needs of others above our own. In providing care to our at-risk children, our undervalued, constantly impugned men, and
our often sickly elders, we simply find no time for ourselves. Or perhaps it is more
accurate to say we find no love for ourselves that inspires us to find the time for
ourselves. Why? The reasons are legion and vary from woman to woman, but most of
us are saddled with societal expectations of virtue and beauty that slander or cheapen
our gifts, and many of us are haunted by negative family dynamics that have crippled
our capacity to see ourselves as worthy of the same love and attention that we lavish
on others.
In the process of caring for everyone else, we—as well as the people around us—
often lose sight of the reality that we need nurturing too. So we rarely pay enough
attention to our own selves, our own needs, and our own growth and development to
know what we want out of life, or what makes us happy, or how to achieve it. Behind
our “strong Black woman” facades, we are slow to admit when something’s wrong in
our lives and even slower to get around to taking care of it, even to the point of waiting years to make a doctor’s appointment.
In these pages, we will ask you to expect more. We’ll ask the question of what
it means to take that giant step to be a healthy Black woman, we’ll explore many
answers, and we’ll propose some of the decisions you must make to get there. As
you read, you will encounter new and challenging ideas that will support your desire
to make healthy choices. You will also hear the frank and inspiring voices of Black
women as they share their experiences, responses, and stories—some that testify with
an all-too-familiar weariness to painful truths, others that speak of incredible resilience and offer fresh perspectives on new ways of being. Most of the time we will
encourage you, but every now and then, we may have to put you in touch with harsh
realities. Even then, we promise that it will be an honest intervention, rooted in love
and respect for all that you are.
We will share with you also insights from several well-known women who eloquently bring us face to face with some of these same truths. In an excerpt from
Health First!
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A Year to Wellness, author Bertice Berry implores us to learn to forgive ourselves for
not having fully accepted who we are, how we look, and the mistakes we’ve made
along the way. Mental-health advocate and author Terri Williams challenges us to
unmask the secret depression that can be as deadly to our emotional well-being as
cancer; in Black Pain, she advises us to remove our personal and collective “game
face” and take a giant step toward truth and gratitude. New York Times best-selling
author and motivational guru Iyanla Vanzant challenges us to “Say Yes To Life” and,
with that embrace, to make the commitment to stop, take a deep breath, and reflect
on what is really going on in our lives.
First and foremost, Health First! is for and
about Black women seeing ourselves with
new eyes. It’s about learning to love ourselves
enough to take care of ourselves, and caring
enough about others to encourage them to do
the same. Self-love is not an indulgence: it is a
commitment to care for oneself in the highest possible manner. Self-love is not wrong,
neither is it selfish. In fact, self-love is an acknowledgment that seeing ourselves as worthy
of love is a prerequisite for loving others. And,
unlike some other kinds of love, self-love is
unconditional.
We must learn
to forgive ourselves
for not having fully
accepted who we are,
how we look,
and the mistakes
we’ve made…
This idea of self-love through self-care
came into being some 30 years ago when a group of 25 Black women from all across
the country answered Byllye Avery’s call to come together in Atlanta. For the next two
years, we planned, plotted, and were completely outrageous in our passionately determined quest to break the “hold” that White, well-educated, middle-class women had
on women’s health. In 1983, the first-ever National Conference on Black Women’s
Health was held at Spelman College under the famous banner—“I’m Sick and Tired
of Being Sick and Tired.” To this day, as we travel around the country, women, old
and young, remember those very first proclamations to make Black women’s health
matter.
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Introduction
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And so here we are again, asking you to plan and plot and imagine with us: what
would it be like if you felt healthy, vibrant, alert, motivated, encouraged, and joyful?
What would it look like if you could shed those fears of going for your mammogram,
if you were the weight you wanted to be, with the energy you wanted to have, if you
forgave your mother for not protecting you as she should have, if you began to have
positive thoughts and feelings about yourself and others? What if you took the chance
and laughed more often, even at yourself? And what if you took the chance as we did
in 1983 to put Black women’s health—your health—first?
It can happen. Living as a Health-Wise woman can become your reality. It’s a
choice that only you can make—and we hope that you will.
What would it be like
if you felt
healthy,
vibrant,
alert,
motivated,
encouraged,
and joyful?
Health First!
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