The Burden of Being

Black women and girls experience discrimination, microaggressions and stereotypes every day. Living with daily racism has a profound impact on the mental health, well-being and lives of all those coping with it.

This special program explores the unique mental health burdens of Black women and girls in the United States. Through interviews with mental health providers and people sharing their personal stories, we’ll explore the effects of racism and how care systems can shift to better help Black women thrive. 

Join Call to Mind host Kimberly Adams for The Burden of Being, a one-hour broadcast special.

Useful resources

A New Way of Life
A nonprofit organization founded by Susan Burton that provides a range of resources to support formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones navigate reintegration, job placement, human rights and dignity, and personal transformation.  

Brown Mamas  
A nonprofit community based in Pittsburgh of Black mothers that provide a space to share stories, experiences, and advice to support each other through the challenges of raising children and being Black women.  

Center on Gender Justice and Opportunity   
This center at Georgetown University focuses on the eliminating gender and racial injustices by platforming stories of girls, women, and gender-expansive people and doing groundbreaking research with an intersectional lens to improve law and policy.  

Essie Justice Group  
A nonprofit community of women with incarcerated loved ones who advocate and organize to break the isolation faced from the experience of incarceration and increase resources to combat the harm of mass incarceration.  

Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood 
This 2017 study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality revealed that Black girls are seen as less innocent and more adult-like by adults then their peers. 

Girls for Gender Equity  
An intergenerational nonprofit organization that uses a Black feminist lens that centers the leadership of Black girls and gender-expansive young people of color to achieve gender and racial justice. 

Hey Auntie!  
An organization that connects a community of Black women across ages and stages of life to learn, grow and share support about an endless range of topics. Based in Philadelphia, Hey Auntie is a virtual platform that offers virtual resources. 

Moms of Black Boys United for Social Change, Inc.  
A nonprofit organization that provides support and information to mothers of Black boys. This organization also promotes positive images of Black men and boys through media and society.  

National Black Women’s Justice Institute 
This organization conducts innovative and community-led research to evaluate solutions that address the criminalization of Black women and girls. 

Planet Venus Institute 
Dr. Venus Evan-Winters founded this nonprofit to provide mental health and educational services to Black girls, college-aged women of color, and emerging professionals and scholars in education and social services. 

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools   
A documentary film about he educational, judicial and societal disparities facing Black girls and how Black girlhood has led to excessive punitive discipline that often impacts their education. 

Reclaiming Girlhood   
Logan Green’s poem, “Reclaiming Girlhood” about her experience with adultification bias that won her first place in the 2021 National Speech and Debate Association Tournament. 

SAFE Housing Network 
A housing network model that stands for the Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom & Equality, which was created by formerly incarcerated women that works to decarcerate the US by bringing people home to stay after reentry. Founded by Susan Burton.