“Strong Black Women”: Prescription Stimulant Use as a Site of Resistance in the Context of Black Women’s Labor and Negative Images of Black Womanhood

Black women are experiencing rising rates of mortality from stimulant-involved overdose. Yet research on the reasons for use of stimulants among Black women are rare. The present study evaluates how the war on drugs has used negative stereotypes of Black womanhood tied to labor through racial capitalism to create barriers in access to prescription stimulants for Black women. We applied the strong Black woman controlling image and transactional stress process model to evaluate how Black women talked about nonmedical prescription stimulant use on Twitter. Results indicated that the controlling image of the crack-addicted mother still affects the way Black women talk about and view their drug use. We found that stressors related to productivity at school, work, and in the home, as well as mental health and addiction determine how Black women cope with stress through nonmedical prescription drug use as a problem- and emotion-based coping method. Identifying how stressors influence Black women’s decisions to engage in nonmedical prescription stimulant use, especially in terms of barriers to care, can help to reduce overdose and poor mental health outcomes through decriminalization of drugs and increased access from medical providers.