A Black woman has launched a retreat exclusively for other Black women to escape from racism in America — and no white people are allowed.
The 10-day Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica vacation sees Black women consuming vegan food, meditating and doing yoga, according to “Vice News Tonight” which followed Andrea X-founded Women of Color Healing Retreat.
During one meditation session, women aired grievances dealing with racism and prejudice. From unwanted hair touching to stereotypes about the lack of activity in the Black community.
“I left the United States because I was sick of gentrification, racism, just dealing with things as Black women trying to figure it out there,” X says.
After losing her job in 2014, X traveled to Costa Rica and funded the retreat using all of her savings.
“We needed a safe space that was outside of the United States to have certain conversations and just to heal,” she says. “I don’t think that we can do that in the United States. I think we’re just suffering and suffocating and just dying every single day trying to survive there.”
She said she would encourage women who can’t afford to travel to Costa Rica to create their own spaces for discussion in America. The trip for Omaha, Neb., resident Alexis Bromley, who admitted that she has felt more at home outside of America than in it, cost more than $2,000.
“We’re looking for… coping mechanisms and ways to take care of ourselves because we’re not on the agenda,” says Christine Donnelly of Chicago.
X said she decided to “just eliminate white people from my personal life” because she picked up on their “microaggressions” and “the passive aggressiveness.”
“Ever since then, my life has been way more breezy,” she says. “I feel like white people shouldn’t even have passports. Because they’ve done enough … especially white Americans.”
She added that white people should “let us have our space. Let us have our room and hang out with other white people. We’re OK. You’ve done enough damage.”
And while the retreat space is white-owned, X and a business partner have invested almost $100,000 to build their own private retreat space. She said this is the first step in building her own community of Black people.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with them,” she says of white people. “This is about us and our community.”
