From Individual Members to the Family Unit: Promoting Health in Black Families Through Radical Healing

Black American families are the embodiment of resilience in this country. For generations, the developmental psychology literature has depicted how Black families have survived in racially and socially stratifying communities. And yet a shift is now evident: While it is necessary for Black families to survive, it is wholly insufficient. Thus, the literature has started to support how Black families will thrive in subsequent generations. As such, this review article seeks to instill readers with a brief historical background along with literature depicting the consistent and adaptive strides to repair harm and promote healing for Black families over the past 60 years. Next, we note that within the past decade, theoretical frameworks advancing radical healing, or the collective well-being and resistance of people of color in the face of racial animus, have emerged, timed accordingly to contend with the current political climate and its impact on healing and the development of new harm. To best support Black families moving forward, we explore how the developmental and radical healing literatures have considered Black familial strength and striving, proposing recommendations for novel approaches in the next wave of research for thriving. We conclude by imagining a future that attends to harms while promoting health through liberated approaches.