Prof. Gómez Contributes Expertise on Sexual Abuse to New Book on Black Activism
Jennifer M. Gómez, an assistant professor at Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW), contributed an important chapter on sexual abuse and healing in a new book examining Black activism from 2000-2022.
Her chapter, titled “Black Activism from the Ivory Tower: Cultural Betrayal, Sexual Abuse, and Healing for Black Women and Girls,” offers a Black feminist perspective on sexual violence and trauma within the Black community and provides actionable takeaways for clinical and non-clinical settings.
Gómez grounds her chapter in cultural betrayal trauma theory (CBTT), a framework she developed to center the role of inequality in sexual violence occurring within Black and other marginalized communities. Exploring CBTT scholarship and practice as a form of activism, she details the needs and strategies for healing from cultural betrayal trauma, and reviews steps that organizations can take to prevent abuse and promote healing.
She also explores the role of activism in shifting power dynamics, quoting colleague Darien Alexander Williams, an assistant professor at BUSSW: “We must [be] aware that the difficulty in finding solutions . . . is not a knowledge problem. It’s a power problem.”
According to Gómez, “That’s where the activism and activists come in: to name the inequality and disrupt the status quo, thus shifting power dynamics at large and small scales within the Black community and outside of it.”
The book, “This Era of Black Activism”, is edited by Mary Marcel and Edith Joachimpillai and will be published by Lexington Books on October 15, 2023.
Jennifer M. Gómez is an assistant professor at BUSSW and a faculty affiliate at the School’s Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health. Her book, “The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women & Girls: A Black Feminist Approach to Healing from Sexual Abuse,” expands upon her previous CBTT research and scholarship by examining the impact of oppression on outcomes of violence.