2020/11/20 by Shalonda Kelly, Gihane Jérémie‐Brink, Anthony L. Chambers +1
paper · doi:10.1111/famp.12614
crossref issued 2020/11/20 · crossref published 2020/11/20 · crossref published-online 2020/11/20 · crossref created 2020/11/21 · crossref published-print 2020/12/01 · crossref deposited 2023/08/24 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30
The frequent police killings during the COVID‐19 pandemic forced a reckoning among Americans from all backgrounds and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement into a global force. This manuscript addresses major issues to aid practitioners in the effective treatment of African Americans via the lens of Critical Race Theory and the Bioecological Model. We place the impacts of racism on Black families in historical context and outline the sources of Black family resilience. We critique structural racism embedded in all aspects of psychology and allied fields. We provide an overview of racial socialization and related issues affecting the parenting decisions in Black families, as well as a detailed overview of impacts of structural racism on couple dynamics. Recommendations are made for engaging racial issues in therapy, providing emotional support and validation to couples and families experiencing discrimination and racial trauma, and using Black cultural strengths as therapeutic resources.