By Rev. Jamesina E. Greene, Contributing Writer, This Woman Knows
My experience is that upon the arrival of a new year, promises of fresh starts, renewed hope, and second chances always occur. But for Black women, the arrival is more complex. For the majority of us, this year, we are carrying the weight of a world that has not yet learned how to honor us, protect us, or fully see us. And still, we rise — not because the world makes room, but because we make room within ourselves to evolve.
My conviction is that 2026 is not asking for the same version of us that survived 2025.
Today, I gather every fragment of strength, wisdom, clarity, and calling that survived last year’s fire and bring it with me. I honor what shaped me, I release what scarred me, and I carry forward only what has become glory in God’s hands.
This new year is demanding something deeper: a self-directed, self-defining, self-honoring path. During my personal time of prayer and meditation, I hear Spirit’s call to call to myself all that I need to have a successful journey. Understanding that most of what I need is already within me. I just need to give voice to it.
Let us be real and honest. We are stepping into a troubled time — politically, socially, spiritually — yet Black women have never been strangers to troubled waters. What’s different now is this:
We can no longer afford to wait for someone else to save us, validate us, or chart the course of our becoming.
This year, we must save ourselves.
A Troubled Time, and Why We Feel It First
As a Black woman, I know that my sisters and I feel the tremors of a shifting world before anyone else does. My conversations with the sisterhood reveal that as caregivers, community builders, truth-tellers, culture carriers, and often the emotional center of families that depend on our strength but rarely know the weight of it.
Economic Impact
When we feel those tremors, the economy tightens. Statistics show that in 2025, Black women experienced disproportionate job losses. These losses contribute to the rise of unemployment in our demographic, higher than the national average. We saw excessive layoffs in government and public-sector jobs, where Black women have historically been overrepresented. In addition, the rollback of DEI initiatives resulted in the elimination of roles held by many Black women.
This matters because Black women’s loss of employment has ripple effects. It impacts household stability, caregiving capacity, wealth-building, and long-term economic security.
When we feel those tremors, we experience a plethora of things:
our sons face systems not built for them; healthcare becomes more dangerous; workplaces drain our brilliance; our marriages or ministries stretch us thin; our single seasons grow lonely; our communities expect our labor but not our leadership.
By nature and ancestral gifting, Black women are spiritual. Not religious, Spiritual. We sense danger early because our spirits are finely tuned. We survive danger because our ancestors taught us how to hear God in the wind.
The Intent is Mandatory
But survival is no longer enough. The atmosphere has shifted. 2026 requires intention. 2026 will not be a year that we can live on autopilot. It will not respond to what is convenient, drifting, or based on survival-mode faith. It will answer only to deliberate alignment.
This year will expose activity that does not have direction. 2026 will press us to answer:
Why am I doing this?
Who am I building for?
What am I willing to release to protect my divine assignment?
Intention transforms effort into purposeful momentum. It is not just about having a full calendar but it is holy awareness. It calls you to decide what will have access to your time, your energy, your body, your spirit, and your voice.
The Lie We Were Told: “Someone Will Come Save Us”
From childhood, Black women have been conditioned to wait:
for systems to correct themselves;
for partners to change;
for churches to acknowledge us;
for workplaces to value us;
for society to finally see our humanity.
We were groomed to hope that rescue was coming. Even the Church, which was/is a staple in the Black community, taught us to “wait to be found by a man.”
But here is the truth we stepped into at midnight on January 1st:
We are the source of our own rescue and liberation.
We are the answer to our own prayers and cries.
We are the shift that our families, communities, and futures require and demand.
This doesn’t mean doing everything alone.
It means no longer giving away the steering wheel of our journey.
What Black Women Must Do for Ourselves in 2026
1. Honor Your Capacity — and Stop Negotiating Your Limits
This year is not about doing everything.
It is about doing what preserves your spirit.
Say “no” without a paragraph of explanation.
Say “yes” to what aligns with your purpose, not just your guilt.
Your capacity is holy ground.
Guard it.
2. Listen to Your Inner Knowing
As the mothers of humanity, Black women carry an intelligence that cannot be taught: intuition, discernment, prophetic insight. We hear what others miss because they are looking outside of themselves.
This year, it is imperative that you trust what your spirit tells you.
If a room drains you, leave.
If a relationship dims you, release it.
If a dream calls you, pursue it.
Your inner knowing is your North Star. Follow it.
3. Choose Yourself Without Apology
It took many years of falling and standing for me to embrace the concept that choosing myself is not selfish — it is survival, it is strategy, it is spiritual.
My sisters, we MUST choose our rest, therapy, health, joy, goals, boundaries, and values.
We have spent years choosing everyone else.
This is the year we turn toward ourselves.
4. Refuse to Shrink — Anywhere
Not in workplaces.
Not in relationships.
Not in church spaces.
Not in community roles.
Not in advocacy.
Not even within your own mind.
5. Build Communities That Pour Back Into You
Every circle is not a safe circle.
Surround yourself with: women who celebrate you; women who sharpen you; women who correct you with love; women who remind you to rest; women who see your brilliance and want you to win
This is the year of intentional sisterhood.
The Rebirth of Our Voice
Something sacred is happening among Black women right now — a return to our power, our vision, our story, our self-definition.
We are not waiting for permission to speak.
We are not waiting for platforms to open.
We are the platform.
A Vision for Black Women in the New Year
Here is what I see — prophetically, spiritually, and practically:
Black women stepping into a year where:
our joy is a protest;
our peace is a declaration;
our boundaries are a rebirth;
our purpose leads us;
our brilliance shines without restriction;
our faith sustains us;
our voice reshapes the world around us
2026 is not just a new year.
It is a new assignment.
