For Black Women, “Locking In” Is Costing Us Our Health

Tokyo, spring evening. By Julienne Louis-Anderson · Updated April 13, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… As the world fixates on global conflict, economic instability, and nonstop headlines, one thing remains consistent: the health and well-being of Black women continues to fall to the margins. April (stress awareness month) began with Megan Thee Stallion’s hospitalization . This tragedy isn’t an exception. It’s a pattern. More than half of Black women report experiencing chronic stress, with disproportionate rates of hypertension, >vagrancy laws which criminalized unemployment . By forcing Black women to perform more work, with less familial support, we worked tirelessly to support the entire nation.  Rest was treated as a threat. And so, Black women worked. Relentlessly. Not just to support themselves, but to sustain entire households, communities, economies, and countries. That legacy hasn’t disappeared. It has evolved. Which is my main issue with the phrase “lock in.” Coined on social media, it reflects becoming hypervigilant on a task to produce a favorable outcome like more money and more recognition.  Black women disproportionately represent those with higher education degrees , non profits, and entrepreneurs—all while juggling our other identities as friends, mothers, spouses, and caretakers. We’ve always been “locked in.” And it’s harmful.  It’s no surprise I worked until the final days of my pregnancy. Teaching was already exha…