Researchers Provide Platforms, Digital Resting Place for Black Women

Topics such as the deadliness of Black women giving birth (https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/10/us/janell-green-smith-midwife-death-cec) and allegations of a former physician performing unnecessary surgeries (https://atlantablackstar.com/2026/01/15/over-600-mostly-black-women-sterilized-and-cut-open-for-no-reason-lawsuit-claims-now-virginia-hospital-faces-6b-lawsuit/) raise red flags about the need to better value Black women with more humanity. Black women still face scrutiny over everything from healthcare to their complexions and their worthiness to date a desirable partner. Online commentaries, and how stories are told about the lived experiences of Black women can help to protect or further threaten the emotional safety of Black women. Who will shape the authentic narratives of Black women in digital spaces?

A Space Dedicated to Black Women, Developed by Researchers, Writers

Dr. DeLisha Tapscott and Dr. Nardos Ghebreab, co-founders of Black Girl Narrative (www.blackgirlnarrative.com) in May 2025, as a culture production hub rooted in research, storytelling, advocacy, and community. The pair builds spaces that honor the lived experiences of Black women as cultural knowledge.

Prepared to Lead, Share Stories

 DeLisha Tapscott, Ed.D., co-founder and curator, researcher, writer and author possesses a background in education and organizational leadership. She currently serves as a Chief Operating Officer for an international justice nonprofit. Nardos Ghebreab, Ph.D., co-founder and strategist, is also a writer, researcher, and scholar with a background in race, racism, and Black teachers’ experiences in education systems. She advances institution-level liberatory design and anti-racist pedagogy to create more just and inclusive spaces. 

Prince George’s County, Maryland-based Dr. Tapscott and Dr. Ghebreab created Black Girl Narrative as a space for the narratives of Black women to exist without compromise, while being referenced, studied, contextualized, and protected. They archive and share Black women’s stories on their own terms.

The Love We Code: Black Women, Digital Safe Havens, and Resistance

Dr. Tapscott, stated that their research project, The Love We Code, (https://www.blackgirlnarrative.com/research), was started to understand how community, protection, and care are practiced among Black women, regardless of relationship status. 

“We sought to focus less on credentials or hierarchy and more on how care is built through listening, believing, and showing up consistently. We also focused on how the protection of the spaces Black women create is often rooted in joy. What we found, as Black women, is what we have always known: that Black women are carving out space for themselves even amidst the chaos and sharing communal moments rooted in trust in each other rather than in a system,” she added.

Additionally, The Love We Code approach self-love as a practice grounded in boundaries, choice, and self-advocacy rather than performance or perfection.

“Our work recognizes digital spaces as both sites of harm and powerful spaces for Black women. Online, we have seen how visibility can invite both surveillance and violence, but we also see how Black women code love through shared language, mutual recognition, and storytelling. We have seen healing emerge across platforms through small connections that blossom into beautiful, widespread relationships,” Dr. Tapscott stated.

Research Campaign Initiative and Storytelling Campaign Documents Black Women in Digital Spaces

The upcoming short-form film, ‘Dear Black Girl Who Stayed Online Anyway,’ https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ4PVBaNNcH/ was a project crafted to represent the beauty often created by Black women’s presence in digital spaces. The initiative seeks to showcase Black women’s joy, care and critiques of digital spaces.

“What was created as a love letter from Black women to Black women focuses on the ways in which we utilize our voices as advocates, where we create emotional safety within, and when we carve out literal spaces of care through group chats, curated communities, and through arts and culture, allowing us to add context and consent into our digital realities,” Dr. Tapscott further stated.

The Protection of Truthful Storytelling and Community for Black Women

Dr. Ghebreab mentioned that colorism, featurism, and hair politics continue to determine who is seen as respectable, desirable, or professional. 

“Lighter skin, straighter hair, and slim body shapes are still rewarded with access and protection, while others are policed and disregarded. The hierarchies within these elements shape Black women’s experiences, from professional opportunities to romantic desirability to the grace we are afforded when we aren’t showing up as our best selves,” she stated.

However, Dr. Ghebreab  and Dr. Tapscott want to normalize the level of community we surround ourselves with as Black women. 

“I would not choose to be anything other than a Black woman.  Even as I constantly decide how to show up in external spaces, I seek out other Black women who support me in prioritizing my rest, my emotional capacity, and my joy,” she stated.

Find @blckgirlnarrative https://www.instagram.com/blckgirlnarrative on Instagram. Sign up to read essays, reflections, and cultural commentary rooted in care via https://blckgirlnarrative.substack.com.