Shifting Realities: Culture & Cognitive Decline in Maturing Black Women

Psychology of Black Womanhood
3 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

A prevalent Black women's aging health risk we need to talk about

Wendi Williams, Barbara “B.” Smith, and Rosa Parks- these are some Black women who publicly faced their experiences with cognitive decline. This is not surprising as women- no matter race or ethnicity- are twice as likely to develop dementia than men. And Black individuals are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop dementia than white individuals. For Black women's higher risks due to genetic, environmental, and socioeconomic factors means it is essential to consider cultural and time-based inequalities. Historical and ongoing systemic racism, socioeconomic disparities, and culturally specific life-course challenges influence cognitive health outcomes.

Despite the significant grown of research examining of cognitive health in the United States, there is a notable lack of comprehensive work specifically focused on Black women. This gap in can be attributed to several factors, including historical underrepresentation in clinical studies, the need for culturally relevant research methodologies, and limited funding for studies focused on minority populations.

This episode features Dr. Tanisha Hill-Jarrett, PhD, discussing the intersecting factors shaping Black women's cognitive decline. A neuropsychologist and an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of California San Francisco Memory and Aging Center, her research applies intersectionality theory to understand how psychosocial stressors and structural racism and sexism impact Black women’s cognitive aging and confer risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). As a scientist and clinician, she is committed to making wellness and brain health accessible to the community at large. Dr. Hill-Jarrett uses Afrofuturism in her community-based work with Black women as a framework to create counternarratives and reimagine the future through a lens of hope. To this end, Dr. Hill-Jarrett created Radical Imagination, a creative aging and Afrofuturism group for Black women. She uses Afrofuturism in this work as a tool for brain health and a praxis that drives social change and centers aging Black women.

For more information about Dr. Tanisha Hill-Jarrett click here.

More works by Dr. Hill- Jarrett:

THIS PODCAST WILL BE AVAILABLE AUGUST 18, 2025

Season 2 Episode 17 Podcast Running Time: 26 minutes