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The Weight of It All

An Analysis of Help-Seeking Behavior Among Black and White College Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2024

Makeiva Jenkins  and
Justine Tinkler
Justine Tinkler
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
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Abstract

Sociologists often interpret racial differences in help-seeking behavior in the United States as stemming from differences in cultural capital, an implication being that those who hesitate to seek help lack understanding of how important it is for success. In this paper, we draw on the work of W. E. B Du Bois and research on gender and racial stereotypes to show that it is not a lack of understanding about the importance of help-seeking, but rather, Black women’s double consciousness that underlies their reluctance to seek help relative to White women. Through twenty-nine in-depth interviews with Black and White college-aged women, we investigate how they make meaning of two competing ideals: the need to be seen as a strong woman and the need for help and social support. We identify a discourse around gender stereotypes for White participants and intersectional stereotypes for Black participants. Where Black and White women experience a consciousness born out of their marginalization relative to men, comparing how they differently navigate stereotypes about strong women reveals the analytic power of Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness. First, the “veil” reveals the racialized gender stereotypes Black women worry they might confirm by seeking help. Second, Black women’s sense of “twoness” means they more often than White women saw their help-seeking behaviors as reflecting negatively on their broader community. Finally, consistent with Du Bois’s point that “second sight” brings awareness but not liberation, we find that even though Black women were hyperaware of the disadvantages of not seeking help, they tended more often than White women to reach a breaking point before seeking it.

Keywords

Strong Black WomanDouble ConsciousnessHelp-SeekingIntersectionalityBlack WomenRacialized Stereotypes
Type
State of the Discipline
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Spring 2025 , pp. 28 - 47
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hutchins Center for African and African American Research

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