“It Will Always Feel Worse Because it Comes with That Added ‘Betrayal’”: Intersectionality Praxis and Black Young Women Survivors’ Perspectives on Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory

ABSTRACT

Because of interlocking oppressions of racism and sexism (e.g. intersectionality), Black women’s experiences of high rates of sexual violence are often ignored. A critical Black feminist framework, cultural betrayal trauma theory (CBTT) examines within-group violence in the Black community, which has compounding harm due to inequality. Though quantitative research has found support for CBTT, Black young women survivors’ perspectives have not been examined. Therefore, the purpose of the current exploratory study was to engage in intersectionality praxis to qualitatively examine Black young women survivors’ perspectives on CBTT through structured thematic analysis and coding based on theory. Respondents (N = 37; 18–30 years), provided their thoughts on CBTT following participating in a quantitative study. With most survivors in agreement that cultural betrayal in trauma is harmful, a key theme was community orientation in understanding both the harm and healing of cultural betrayal trauma. Black young women survivors’ resonance with CBTT, as well as their recommendations for community-level solidarity and healing have important implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural betrayal trauma theory
• Black feminism
• intersectionality
• Black young women
• sexual abuse, assault, and violence
• racism

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the Black young women in our study for sharing their experiences, insights, and wisdom. Next, we would like to thank the 2023 Intersectionality, Research, Policy, & Practice Summer Intensive (https://www.intersectionalitytraining.org/services/summer-intensive), including keynote speaker, Patricia Hill Collins, for their impact on the first author’s theoretical and methodological understanding of intersectionality and intersectional oppression.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

To protect participant confidentiality, supporting data is not available.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2024.2383197

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute for Child & Family Development [MPSI], the Department of Psychology, and the Division of Research at Wayne State University [Principal Investigator: Jennifer M. Gómez].