Black Women Deserve More Than Struggle Love
It’s okay to set the bar high.
“Struggle love was an engaging storyline about loving against all the odds. It’s a storyline that made Black women heroes in relationships. “(Eskridge, 2018)
Black women have always been the glue holding the Black community together. Historically, they stood on the right-hand side of Black men as they endured many atrocities — including enslavement, lynchings, segregation, and mass incarceration. And because all Black people suffer indignities because of racism, Black women try their best to hold it down no matter what.
But it’s essential to acknowledge that the ride-or-die mantra encourages Black women to accept struggle love. Glorifying struggle love only normalizes unhealthy relationships in the Black community.
In America, romantic partners consider Black women least desirable, especially those with Afrocentric features. Whenever Black women talk about the discrimination they experience in the dating realm, many people insist Black women are their own worst enemy.
They fall over backwards, giving Black women unwarranted advice — upgrade your closet, lose some weight, or go back to school. And with every bit of advice comes an insistence that Black women are inherently less healthy, less beautiful, or moral. No one…
