From PhD Candidate Demond Hill Jr.: "We interviewed Black people about where happiness comes from and whether 15 typical happiness practices work for them.
What is happiness, why is it so important, and why is it so hard to achieve?
Together, individuals and communities will go through many measures to achieve happiness. Starting in the late 1990s, positive psychology set out to understand how people become happier—but from the beginning, its perspective was skewed: Researchers and practitioners tended to overlook how race, racialization, and culture shape how an individual or community experiences, expresses, and practices happiness.
As documented in Mia Bay’s essay “A Short History of Black Happiness,” Black communities encounter extensive social, cultural, and political obstacles that attempt to hinder their well-being. Some of these obstacles include living in poverty-stricken communities, physical and psychological violence, trauma, homophobia, oppressive policies, over-policing, over-surveillance, sexism, anti-Black racism, and displacement."