ABSTRACT
The term self-care seems to have joined the ranks of diversity and intersectionality in an ever-expanding category of ‘woke’ buzzwords that have been co-opted (or co-rrupted) through de-historicization and de-politicization. The neoliberal understanding of self-care is problematized as an individual responsibility devoid of macro considerations of systemic inequities. Because of the dominance of this form of self-care in popular culture, inequitable institutions are allowed to persist in their infliction of pain, violence, and trauma upon communities, for which neoliberal forms of self-care are ineffective in healing. Therefore, readers are urged to understand radical self-care as collective in nature, dependent upon one’s positionality and the relationality among communities and their histories. Radical self-care is about caring for one another while fighting for liberation against unjust systems and ideologies. Taking a critical feminist lens, this chapter walks readers through reflective practices for strengthening critical consciousness and suggests community actions for radical self-care with the sustainability of advocacy work in mind for teaching English for speakers of other languages educators.
