University of Kentucky promotes segregated 'racial healing circles'
A professor is partnering with activist organizations to offer “racial healing circles” for Black people in Lexington, Kentucky.
One of the organizations works to provide therapists “you don't have to explain 400 years of history to.”
A professor at the University of Kentucky is partnering with activist organizations to offer free “racial healing circles” for Black people.
According to UKNow, Candice Hargons — a professor in the University of Kentucky’s College of Education — announced a six-week series of free online courses to “allow Black community members to discuss racial identity development, racial socialization and cognitive, emotional and somatic responses to racism.”
Participants were invited to join sessions including “Surrendering Superwoman Syndrome,” “Healing While Black,” and “Family Matters” — sessions geared toward Black women, men, and families, respectively.
“Through my training as a licensed psychologist, my scholarship as a scientist of healing racial trauma, and my lived experience as a Black woman,” Hargons said. “I have gained the understanding that we can’t heal racial trauma without an accompanying strategy to prevent racist stressors from occurring.”
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Corporate sponsors — including Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky and CVS Health — were listed among the program’s sponsors.
Hargons is leading the program through the Center for Healing Racial Trauma, where she serves as executive director. The organization uses “love, liberation, equity, and creativity informed therapeutic interventions” to help racially marginalized people “heal from racism.”
The group offers therapists “you don’t have to explain 400 years of history to.”
The Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative — which invests hundreds of thousands of dollars into programs that combat anti-Black racism — is likewise partnering with Hargons.
Campus Reform reached out to the University of Kentucky and Hargons for comment; this article will be updated accordingly
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft
