It’s been a year since those first sickening reports were published showing that 300,000 Black women were pushed out of the US workforce in the first half of 2025.

These Black women were the people who kept workplaces safe for others and tried to put humanity above profit, while white men showed they only prioritized greed.

What did those white men want to happen to the Black women who were ousted?

I assume they expected Black women to take lower paying jobs and have to work more for less money. Maybe they wanted us out in the streets. Or at least panicking and dependent.

But what we’ve seen in the ExodUS Summit community, is that some Black women who were pushed out of the workforce last year don’t even want to return. (And being in the streets isn’t the only alternative.)

This isn’t just the women who were already ready to retire.

Women who still need to make more money to live the rest of their lives would rather take their money-earning futures into their own hands than be under the thumb of the subpar white men running things.

What have we opted out of?

Black women have opted out of fixing other people’s messes, for sure. We see that in the workforce and in politics and probably in your families too.

But also, Black women are opting out of the job trap. Having a job as their only source of money (and only source of worth, sometimes) was dangerous.

Relying on just a traditional job for money is so much more stressful than knowing how to make money on your own. This is a new lesson for some, even if it’s not super surprising.

Black women understood that we never had “job security.” Unlike the nepo-babies and true beneficiaries of hand-outs we worked with, we’ve always been the last hires and the first fired.

But that has meant we’ve always had to be flexible. We’ve had multiple income streams before personal finance “experts” started shouting about multiple income streams like they discovered fire.

So what does opting out look like?

The big shift is in understanding where the actual value comes from.

The value isn’t in the job title; it’s in the skill.

Untethering what you know how to do from a job title makes it easier to see the different ways to make money for yourself.

Keeping your skills and your network and cutting out the middle-man means more security, not less.

So more Black women are moving into coaching and consulting and freelancing so that they’re in control of their earnings.

We talked to Monique Fortenberry, a former federal employee who created a community for other displaced Black women feds (and other government workers) about how her switch from a “good government job” to community builder has improved her economic stability.

Watch “What are Black women rebuilding after being pushed out of the workforce?”

The first time Monique told us about SisterFeds was inside of our Get Your Next 3 Clients challenge. She joined our challenge to help turn her idea into income while serving the very women she wanted to serve.

That’s another way we’ve opted out.

Black women are creating even more spaces that are for Black women only.

We’ve tried to be inclusive, and looked up to find no one else on our side. No one else was willing to stand for us after we stood for them.

We (Roshida and Stephanie) had a good conversation about “Job Security” on our YouTube channel this week. We shared our own experiences with “good jobs” and how we transitioned to coaching for more control over what we make, who we work with and what work we do.

Watch Now that JOB SECURITY for Black women is over, here’s what’s next.

Feel free to share this with a Black woman who’s ready to pivot. And if you want an income stream you’re in control of, join us in the Get Your Next 3 Clients challenge in our ExodUS A.S.A.P. membership.

Your partners in ExodUS,

On International Meetup Day (September 5, 2026) we want you to feel the power of being in community with Black women who only want you to be happy, who only want to support your dreams.

Those in the US usually spend these meetups strategizing and finding accountability buddies, and even co-living partners. Those outside of the US make new friends that they continue to see around the world for years to come.

Wherever you are, please join a meetup on September 5. If there isn’t a meetup in your city yet, it’s easy to make one. Get into the ExodUS Summit Community, and our admin, Frances, will help you with everything you need to know.

The ladies in the community have already planned meetups in Porto, in Playa del Carmen, in Panama City, in Atlanta, and in Southern California - with more being planned every day.

A meetup can be small - two Black women getting together over tea, or huge, like our NYC team that always goes all out.

We hope that if you’re already a member of the ExodUS Summit (or you want to be) you’ll be at a meetup on September 5. Community is good for the soul. Blackness is healing. And you don’t need to be lonely on this journey.

Roshida (and Stephanie)

First let’s explain the difference.

To live in a new country longterm and legally, you need legal residency in that country. But residency is not the same as citizenship.

For the past 6 years, we’ve helped Black women and their families move abroad, and that rarely happens by them getting citizenship in a new country.

Usually, residency is enough. And a lot of our community members start with temporary residency before they upgrade to permanent residency.

Getting citizenship in a new country is a different process.

Sometimes the country requires you to have lived there as a legal resident for several years and then pass a citizenship test plus a language test.

Also, there are countries that let you buy citizenship. Most start at around $250,000 USD going into the millions.

But most of the women in our community who’ve gotten citizenship abroad have done it through birthright. If you or your parent or spouse (or sometimes grandparent) were born abroad, you could qualify for citizenship in that country.

That’s how you get a second passport.

If you qualify for citizenship and a passport in another country, please get it. The United States already begun testing out stripping naturalized US citizens of their citizenship. This might be a test to remove citizenship from birthright citizens in the future. Take steps to make sure you don’t become stateless.

So who should be thinking about residency abroad?

Whether you’re eligible for citizenship abroad or not, we DO think Black Americans should make it a priority to get residency abroad. Both of us are permanent residents of Mexico, and that security blanket feels so comfy every time the US starts acting up.

Mexico is one of the countries that doesn’t have a set number of days you have to live there to remain a legal resident. So it’s an ace up your sleeves. (Stephanie lives in Colombia, while Roshida has lived in Mexico for the last 7 years.)

Rules and requirements are always changing. If you think you might maybe one day want to live in another country, go ahead and act now.

In the last 5 years, income requirements to qualify for temporary residency in Mexico increased from $1,600 USD per month to $4,100 USD per month. Everything’s getting more expensive. Don’t wait until you’re priced out of options.

Watch our video for more information.

We talked in depth about residency and citizenship abroad for Black women and their families in this video:

Is It Second Passport / Residency Visa Time for Black Women? 📘 | ExodUS A.S.A.P.

Your partners in ExodUS,

We don't live in the United States anymore. We haven’t for years. 🥂Toast to that. Let's talk about why we, two Black women, have chosen not to live in the United States anymore and what are some choices for other Black women who are starting to feel the same way. This is a recruitment tool.

We think that’s the number one reason that we just don’t want to live in the United States anymore.

Once you leave the United States for a significant amount of time you get to see how in other countries – some other countries – there is less of a focus on you being a worker. Less of a focus on everything being designed and catering to the rich.

I mean capitalism is worldwide, but in the United States we’re really given one trackin life. And that life is, “Hello ,welcome to the world. You’re a worker now.”

And one reason that we don’t want to live there is that we don’t want to identify ourselves only based on the work that we do. Or we don’t want that to be our entire identity, our entire life, the whole conversation that we have.

Right now, I live a life where I don’t ask people what they do, because it’s not relevant. We instead have real conversation about who we are, not what we do.

So I think we can say that reason number two that we don't want to live in the US anymore is that we get to explore what we want our entire life to look like when we’re abroad. Whereas in the US, that's really not a thing,

We get to create from scratch a new self, and that's something that inside the US is almost impossible.

It's hard to make any kind of major change in the same environment. You need to be in a new environment to change.

We always say you can be a new person in a new place. So part of it is just it's easier because you're in a new environment.

But also, you know systems are not set up for you to really explore who you are what you're into, what you like what you don't like.

How much of a hippie do you want to become? There are too many barriers, too many restrictions, too many pressures — especially on Black women — for that kind of reinvention to be possible in the US.

It's easier if you just don't live in the United States.

This isn't to talk bad about your family and friends, but even the people who know you have the most stressful job and that you hate it and it's treating you bad — the minute you quit that job — half of them are going to think you're having a mental breakdown.

Like, “What do you mean, you don't work?” When I left my well my job when the company shut down and there was no job anymore, even though I had been unhappy at work, most of my friends were like, “Okay but like what are you going to do about work?” And I'm like, “What am I going to do about my mental health?” No one asked what's the next best step for you. Everybody was like, “Uh we hiring at my job. Can you do X Y and Z?” It came from a place of love, but Americans don't know how to do much else except work.

If you want to hear the rest of this conversation, please watch our video: Why We Left the USA and You Should Too