My very own therapeutic from the constructs of colorism, texturism, and featurism has allowed me to look at the locations inside my physique the place I’m holding these interlocking constructs, the injuries that originated in cultural oppression and had been injected into our household histories, and that had been then bolstered by the way in which that we discuss our our bodies and go these beliefs down from mom to daughter.
I’ve additionally labored to not solely uproot my inherited narratives about physique and wonder beliefs, however to launch the power of trauma that I inherited, which is linked to the worry and survival I inhabited after I held on to these beliefs.
I had internalized a number of anti-Blackness linked to my id.
Rising up, I used to be not uncovered to a number of numerous representations of Black girls and femmes, and I had internalized a number of anti-Blackness linked to my id. As an grownup, I’m perpetually doing the work to unpack these points inside myself. I didn’t develop up figuring out about Black feminists like Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Zora Neale Hurston, or others—however now I’ve reclaimed their tales, which have helped me perceive and see myself.
I’ve photos of ancestor Harriet Tubman on my ancestral altar, and a picture of the Black Madonna—historical depictions of the Virgin Mary with darkish pores and skin—as a result of I need to encompass myself with the existence of Black magnificence and boldness in all of the fantastic, myriad methods it has manifested all through time.
Not too long ago, I ordered a guide written by Catherine E. McKinley referred to as The African Lookbook: A Visible Historical past of 100 Years of African Ladies, which was stuffed with African girls current of their our bodies. Some pictures had been taken earlier than colonization, and it was wonderful to see girls in a wide range of physique shapes, sizes, pores and skin tones, hair textures, and options—sporting a wide range of adornments—taking on house. Among the pictures had been of girls and femmes unbashful about their naked chests or bottoms being uncovered.
They weren’t sexualized or objectified, as a result of being of their our bodies was widespread and had religious connections. The guide additionally exhibits representations of Black girls and femmes sitting down and gazing immediately into the digicam inside postures of relaxation, pleasure, and confidence. Some postures even signify the bodily expertise of taking on house as they sit with their legs open and their arms resting on the again of a chair in a means that Western society would deem unladylike.
Black magnificence and the Black physique can’t and shouldn’t be contained inside a field
These photos proceed to remind me that Black magnificence and the Black physique can’t and shouldn’t be contained inside a field—and that our ancestors have all the time been expansive and embodied. We now have the chance to reclaim what was misplaced and to recollect what has been misremembered about our our bodies.
Therapeutic ourselves from colorism, featurism, and texturism requires us to each look at the locations inside our personal our bodies and households the place we now have been holding on to those damaging constructs and to start the exhausting however obligatory work of unpacking them. By making an sincere evaluation of the way in which these constructs present up for us, after which working to amplify the narratives of those that expertise essentially the most social oppression round these magnificence beliefs, we are able to lastly handle the wound.
That is how we cease directing our anger and rage—whether or not acutely aware or subconsciously—towards one another, and as an alternative be part of collectively to take down the ability buildings which have instigated our separation from each other and from our personal our bodies. On this means, we liberate each ourselves and our communities.
Excerpted from Reclaiming the Black Physique by Alishia McCullough. Copyright © 2025 by Alishia McCullough. All rights reserved. No a part of this excerpt could also be reproduced or reprinted with out permission in writing from the writer.
