There is always a beginning of every radical life change with a tipping point. And so for Chrishan Wright, a digital marketing entrepreneur based in New Jersey, back in 2020 that threshold was crossed.
Around the U.S., for Wright and so many Black people, the tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery were beyond the level of bearing. While recently she had also been let go from her corporate job. As said by Wright, the deaths of these people on the heels of a job layoff, coupled with the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and disruption threw her into an emotional tailspin (Source: InStyle).
Before that moment, Wright had been researching and saving money for how she could leave the United States, but the emotional tailspin led her towards the creation of Blaxit Global which was a platform that was created to inspire and empower the members of the African diaspora to pursue a life abroad.
For Wright, there is no greater form of radical self-care as she plans on moving out of the U.S. in the year 2023, after building a community of expats from all over the globe online. “I didn’t realize the importance of travel as a part of my self-care until I took my first solo trip in 2017,” she says (Source: InStyle). After investing years in putting her career and family first, she now has decided to bucket list a trip to New Zealand. For her, that trip was transformative in numerous ways since she was able to explore things that she wouldn’t have done in States since she felt free to just be.
Furthermore, it was also noted by Wright that over $109 billion are spent by Black people on leisure travel back in 2019 and this piece of information was taken from a study by MMGY Global. While there lies no such data regarding Black expatriation that shows the signs of clarity that relaxation and rest have now become increasingly important. Through her Blaxit Global network, currently, wright is seen to have cultivated a virtual ecosystem of roughly 20,000 members.
Sharita Jennings found herself unintentionally in the same boat as Wright on the other side of the globe, the same year Wright sojourned to New Zealand solo. Back in 2017, in Panama City, Jennings calls her first solo trip which was an accidental one since she got stranded there because of a canceled flight. It was then that she realized and discovered that there was a different way to live.
According to Jennings, Black women should be there uncompromising in their requirement for rest and self-care. Travel is about a discovery of how to thrive mentally, socially, and emotionally (Source: InStyle).
If it is to be asked then hopping on a plan doesn’t come as so much of an escape but it is a way to remember what is important. Like for Wright, and Jennings, for numerous women travel has always been a source of healing.
It was estimated by the 2010 Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), that Black women ages 49-55 are 7.5 years biologically older as compared to white women due to stress. By the age of 30, it was revealed by the same study that Black women exhibited signs of greater wear and tear on the body, which are the contributors to chronic stress, as compared to the Black men, and white men as well as women (Source: InStyle). And to no surprise, pandemic-related stress also has disproportionately impacted Latinx and Black women.
Today, it is to be seen that more and more Balck women open up to the idea of taking control of their lives and later optimizing their surroundings. If any place is putting unnecessary stress on their families or them then they are there packing their bags and moving to where they can live a whole and content life.
