Cheryl Rodriguez
MOTHERING WHILE BLACK: FEMINIST THOUGHT ON
MATERNAL LOSS, MOURNING AND AGENCY IN THE AFRICAN
DIASPORA
Abstract
This essay is a discussion and analysis of key femi-
nist ideas in the collection of articles for a special
edition of Transforming Anthropology, entitled
“Sorrow as Artifact”. The author discusses the
importance of transnational and feminist perspec-
tives in anthropological analyses and definitions of
Black motherhood. The author also examines inter-
secting themes, including Black mothers’ responses
to violence and loss throughout the African dias-
pora. The author also considers why Black mother-
hood matters and the roles of “other mothers” in
the historic and ongoing Black freedom strug-
gle. [Black motherhood, Black feminist thought, vio-
lence and loss, Black women’s maternal activism
and agency]
When asked why she repeatedly grabbed and
slapped her son in full view of people on a
crowded Baltimore street, Toya Graham explained
in a television interview, “My intention was to get
my son and have him be safe.” Instead of being in
school, Ms. Graham’s 16-year-old son had been
running in the streets with other youth who were
protesting the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed
Black man allegedly murdered by Baltimore
police. A single mother of six children, Ms. Gra-
ham was lauded in some media outlets and by the
Baltimore police as a hero and a courageous
parent who was unafraid to mete out harsh pun-
ishment upon witnessing her son throwing rocks
at the police during the community protest. Some
who viewed the video of Graham chasing down
and slapping her son may have felt she was pro-
tecting White America from yet another Black
criminal who would soon be breaking into their
homes or robbing them on the street. However, it
is clear from her statement that Toya Graham’s
actions were very similar to many Black mothers
throughout the African diaspora who struggle to
Transforming Anthropology, Vol. 24, Number 1, pp. 61–69, ISSN 1051-0559, electronic ISSN 1548-7466. © 2016 by the American
Anthropological Association. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1111/traa.12059.
keep their children alive by any means necessary.
In fact, Toya Graham was protecting her son from
the Baltimore police, who could have shot him
dead that very day.
While this high-profile story was used by some
to underscore the criminality of Black youth and
to justify violence upon the bodies of Black youth,
it did not contribute very much to the critical,
escalating issue of state-supported violence and the
terror of policing in Black communities. Nor did
this media event acknowledge the many productive
and creative strategies that Black mothers every-
where have employed to protect their children
from harm and death at the hands of the state.
Toya Graham’s story, which reflected one
mother’s very real fear for her son, was a tempo-
rary diversion from larger issues of extreme vio-
lence, occupation and death affecting people in
poor Black communities. These aspects of Black
mothering—experiences with violence, loss, and
grief; conscious and activist responses to state vio-
lence; and protection of Black children and Black
communities by biological mothers and “other-
mothers”—are all aspects of Black feminist analy-
ses of Black motherhood. The essays in this
volume by Christen Smith, Riche Daniel Barnes,
and Rhaisa Williams capture many of these issues
as the authors also shed light on the transnational,
global phenomenon of anti-Black violence and its
devastating impact on Black communities through-
out the African diaspora. Through ethnographic
accounts of mothering while Black in Brazil and
the United States, the contributors to this volume
politicize Black women’s roles as caregivers in
households and communities.
Historically, the social science literature on
Black motherhood was dominated by research and
theories on Black women’s lives in the context of
family. This is particularly true of Billingsley’s
work, which examined some of the major dimen-
sions of “the Negro family” and addressed mis-
conceptions and distortions in the research
61
literature about family life in Black communities
(Billingsley 1968). McAdoo’s early collaborative
projects with diverse groups of interdisciplinary
scholars also focused on multiple contexts and per-
spectives of Black family life (McAdoo 1981;
McAdoo 1988). While these publications were not
meant to offer a singular focus on Black mother-
hood, they are examples of the minor attention
paid to Black women as mothers even in the late
20th century. However, these publications, which
were very focused on destigmatizing Black family
life, were foundational in the development of
inquiry on Black family life, including Black
women’s multiple roles in creating and sustaining
interlocking systems of kin. As the community of
feminist scholars expanded, there was increasing
interest in the multiple intersecting strategies for
survival created by Black women in poor commu-
nities, notably, Stack’s work on Black mothers
and the creation of community networks (1974).
As Black feminist anthropologists began to exam-
ine Black women’s roles in families, the complexity
of the intersection of race, gender, and class
became a central theoretical framework for exam-
ining Black motherhood. Mullings, for example,
studies Black mothers, work, and family life in
Central Harlem. She not only describes their pov-
erty and their efforts to survive but she also docu-
ments Black mothers’ attempts to develop and
sustain their larger communities through social
and political networks (Mullings 1997).
Black feminist scholars have also embraced
the importance of understanding Black mother-
hood in African and African Diasporan contexts.
A rich body of interdisciplinary work on Black
motherhood in Africa and the diaspora continues
to grow, including historical research on African
Caribbean mothers and children during slavery
(Bush 2010); social science research on the work-
ing lives of African-Caribbean women in Britain
(Reynolds 2001); and other studies of Black moth-
erhood in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin Amer-
ica not only illustrate that “the experiences of the
majority of Black women represent multiple forms
of oppression” (Steady 1981:3), but also, in Africa
and across the diaspora, there is much diversity in
the factors that influence women as mothers,
including national identity, cultural expectations,
class status, and historical legacies (Steady 1981).
The collection of scholarly essays in this vol-
ume brings together unique perspectives and anal-
yses on Black mothers with a particular focus on
the concepts of violence, loss, and grief, and the rela-
tionship of these concepts to Black motherhood.
62 TRANSFORMING ANTHROPOLOGY VOL. 24(1)
These essays also illustrate that the concept of loss
in the African diaspora is more than historical sym-
bolism. Rather, loss—particularly the loss of a child
—is a historic legacy. Moreover, Black women’s
responses to loss have historical and contemporary
implications as well as social and political intersec-
tions across the diaspora.
A number of writers attempt to capture the
idea of loss as a legacy of Black oppression begin-
ning with the transatlantic slave trade. Saidiya
Hartman (2008), for example, meditates on the
historic, spiritual, and existential disconnection
from the African continent by Black people in the
diaspora. Hence, the loss of connection to places
of origin on the African continent is a powerful
idea that shapes the core of our understanding of
diaspora. In considering the relationship of loss to
place, some scholars note that the African conti-
nent has also been stunned and crippled by loss.
Howard Dodson, for example, argues that “up to
one hundred million disrupted or terminated lives”
(2001:121) was a tragic loss of human capital for
the continent. Similarly, Walker contends that the
transatlantic slave trade constituted “the world’s
first massive brain drain and transfer of technol-
ogy from Africa to the Americas” (2001:2). Yet,
there is even more to consider when examining
loss as a legacy of diasporic processes. Hartman
explores some of the complex consequences of loss
in the diaspora. She muses:
The hope is that return could resolve the old
dilemmas, make a victory out of defeat, and
engender a new order. And the disappointment
is that there is no going back to a former condi-
tion. Loss remakes you. Return is as much about
the world to which you no longer belong as it is
about the one in which you have yet to make a
home. (2008:100)
While people of African descent may have
been “remade” by loss, we have effectively and
successfully participated as agents of change in
our own lives and communities by creating institu-
tions and contributing to new ideas about liberty
and freedom. Yet, we also continue to experience
devastating losses of youth in cities throughout the
diaspora. The continuous remaking of Black peo-
ple comes at a very high price.
The subjects of the research in this volume are
situated within and throughout the diaspora. They
represent generations of African diasporic people
who struggle with racism, poverty, and other
forms of oppressive forces. While the notion of
returning to a motherland is not a part of their
experience, they are all affected by loss resulting
from some form of violence. In these ethnographic
accounts of motherhood and loss, a Black mother
in Cleveland challenges perceptions of maternal
responsibilities through her own suicide, while a
mother in Salvador is murdered by police after
speaking out against torture and terror in her
community. In this collection, middle-class Afri-
can-American women in Atlanta consider the
losses of children through the violence of unpre-
dictable miscarriages, while Black mothers in Rio
de Janeiro struggle to save their Black sons from
the inevitability of murder.
Documenting and inscribing Black mothers’
responses to violence and loss in the United States
and Latin America, this collection of Black femi-
nist ethnographies confronts and stands in opposi-
tion to negative and erroneous portrayals of Black
motherhood. Even in the 21st century, portrayals
in popular media often fail to respect and
acknowledge Black mothers’ responses to racial-
ized violence and Black mothers’ agency in
response to everyday terror.
The scholars who contribute to this volume
illuminate the importance of Black feminist
anthropological perspectives on motherhood and
mothering. Black feminist thought in anthropology
“constructs its own canon that is both theoretical
and based in a politics of praxis and poetics; it
[also] seeks to deconstruct the institutionalized
racism and sexism that has characterized the his-
tory of the discipline of anthropology” (McClaurin
2001, 2).1 While framing their work in diverse
intellectual and political contexts, each of these
scholars raises more questions than are answered,
thus complicating and redefining Black mother-
hood as a concept, an idea, and a lived experience.
However, what is important here is that Black
feminist perspectives on motherhood are rich, lay-
ered, and complex. This discussion will briefly
examine some of the research on Black mother-
hood that contributes to and enhances the works
in this collection. Through an analysis of why
Black motherhood matters, I critique racist, sexist,
and patriarchal analyses of Black women’s roles as
mothers that have dominated the social science lit-
erature. Secondly, I explore interlocking themes in
the research of these three very compelling schol-
ars. Finally, I challenge Black feminist thinkers to
continue the work of problematizing images and
analyses of Black motherhood and to add new
dimensions to the anthropology of Black mother-
hood by documenting Black mothers’ ongoing
resistance to violence and oppression as well as
their ongoing care and concern for the health and
well-being of Black communities.
BLACK MOTHERHOOD MATTERS
Motherhood is a central concept that recurs fre-
quently in the analyses of Black feminist thinkers in
the social sciences and humanities. Historically, the
predominant social science conceptualizations of
Black motherhood were simplistic, wrapped in con-
founding, contradictory stereotypes, and grounded
in patriarchal ideology. For example, it was sociolo-
gist E. Franklin Frazier who first wrote about the
Black matriarchy and warned of the harmful impact
of the “matrifocal family” (Frazier 1939), despite
Black women’s important mothering roles in both
public and domestic domains. Giddings argues that
Moynihan’s myopic thesis on the dysfunctional
matriarchal patterns of Black family life (the oppo-
site of traditional parental structures in White fami-
lies) “borrowed heavily from established Black
sociologists” like Frazier (Giddings 1984:328).
Other social scientists have written about “the Black
mother” as if there is only one type, and typically
she is angry, domineering, limited in her education
and skill sets, and—in the tradition of Frazier and
Moynihan—responsible for the tangle of pathology
that is “The” Black family.
Black feminist thinkers—artists, writers, and
social scientists—have created and contributed
complex and profound analyses on Black women
and motherhood. Often, portrayals of Black
women and Black family life in fiction and theatre
have been written with great regard and reverence
for Black motherhood. In Loraine Hansberry’s “A
Raisin in the Sun,” for example, Lena Younger is
a Black mother who is clearly defined by her
strength, determination, care giving, vision, leader-
ship, and at times, even vulnerability. Lena
Younger’s passion to see her son become a suc-
cessful man is overshadowed by the sorrow she
feels living in an America that is hostile to Black
men—shackling and trapping them in many differ-
ent ways. The play examines not only the impact
of racism and poverty on Black family life but also
shows complicated individuals struggling to hold
on to their dreams and, as a family, striving to
move beyond survival in a hostile America.
Of Alice Walker’s classic essay, “In Search of
our Mothers’ Gardens,” feminist scholars Patricia
Bell-Scott and Beverly Guy-Sheftall wrote, “[this
essay] is perhaps the most poignant and eloquent
analysis of the legacy Black mothers and grand-
mothers have left to their daughters, their families,
Cheryl Rodriguez 63
their communities” (1984:2). In her stunning essay,
Walker dares to consider the creative lives of
Black mothers and grandmothers. She insists:
“They waited for a day when the unknown thing
that was in them would be made known; but guessed,
somehow in their darkness, that on the day of their
revelation they would be long dead” (Walker
1983:233). While she writes of the “far-reaching
world of the creative Black woman” (Walker
1983:238), Walker’s essay is also a lament for her
own mother, who expressed her creativity through
gardening even though she was “hindered and
intruded upon in so many ways” (Walker 1983:242).
Patricia Bell-Scott and Beverly Guy-Sheftall
paid homage to Alice Walker’s classic essay in the
1984 edition of SAGE, a Scholarly Journal on Black
Women. In that same publication, these scholars
argued that the social science literature was nearly
void of research on Black mothers (Bell-Scott and
Guy-Sheftall 1984:2). However, the 1980s witnessed
the emergence of Black Women’s Studies and, with
the publication of such scholarly works as Ar’n’t I a
Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South
(1985) by historian Deborah Gray White, Black
feminist voices addressed the silences, misrepresen-
tations, distortions, and stereotypes surrounding
Black motherhood. White’s groundbreaking
research included analyses of enslaved mothers as
human beings, who despite their inhumane captiv-
ity, took risks and made choices as they attempted
to raise and protect their children.
Defining Black motherhood has been key to
opposing patriarchy and racism, two interrelated
systems of domination (Roberts 1993) that shape
and influence meanings of womanhood and moth-
erhood, resulting in brutal social and policy impli-
cations for Black women. Hence, Black feminist
knowledge production on Black motherhood has
been transformative. In her work on the impor-
tance of a homeplace, belle hooks views Black
women’s homes as sites of resistance that are cen-
tral to a Black family’s sense of well-being and
sense of protection from White power structures
(hooks 1990). Hence, in hooks’s analysis, nurtur-
ing becomes a revolutionary force that is especially
valuable for Black women living in White supre-
macist societies. Collins defines Black motherhood
as a dynamic and dialectical institution that con-
sists of a series of constantly renegotiated relation-
ships between Black women, their children, the
larger Black community and each other (Collins
1990:118). Through their analyses, Black feminist
scholars have challenged oppressive definitions of
motherhood. Moreover, they have confronted
64 TRANSFORMING ANTHROPOLOGY VOL. 24(1)
research and policies that perpetuate the “histori-
cal devaluation of Black motherhood” (Roberts
1997:939). In terms of theoretical, political, and
policy directions for Black feminist scholars,
Sudarkasa strongly argues that while refuting
Moynihan and others who have viewed Black fam-
ilies as dysfunctional, aberrant, and abnormal,
scholars should also focus on understanding the
tradition of scholarship that led to the destructive
interpretations and conclusions about Black family
life (Sudarkasa 1996).
Although theories by Black feminists make
significant contributions to the literature on Black
motherhood, self-definition by Black mothers is
also critical to research and policy. Black mother-
hood is particularly important as a source of
self-definition beyond the roles of nurturing and
caregiving. Collins argues, “motherhood can serve
as a site where Black women express and learn the
power of self-definition, the importance of valuing,
and respecting ourselves, the necessity of self-reli-
ance and independence, and a belief in Black
women’s empowerment” (Collins 1990:118). Docu-
menting Black women’s lived experiences as moth-
ers is “a critical aspect of the meaning of
motherhood that influences both the dominant
society’s construction and the feminist reconstruc-
tion of mothers” (Ladner 1972:213–214). Black
feminists researchers’ efforts to document, record
and describe many dimensions of Black mother-
hood are all components of the visions of Black
feminist anthropology. These theories and ethno-
graphic approaches are very apparent in the schol-
arship represented in this volume.
SORROW AS ARTIFACT: MAJOR THEMES
In the 21st century, the need for feminist scholar-
ship on Black motherhood is urgent. This is par-
ticularly important in the discipline of
anthropology. The scholarship in this volume
brings together painful, complex, and multidimen-
sional descriptions and analyses of Black mother-
hood in the diaspora. Intersecting themes include:
the importance of transnational and feminist anal-
yses of Black motherhood; Black mothers’ experi-
ences with violence, loss, and grief; Black mothers’
conscious and activist responses to violence and
loss, particularly the loss of children; and protec-
tion of Black children and Black communities
through advocacy and activism.
A Transnational and Feminist Analysis
One of the major themes in this volume is that of
anti-Black violence as a transnational, global
phenomenon. Christen Smith acknowledges and
examines the transnational and global implications
of anti-Black violence in the African Diaspora. It
is critical that we understand state-sponsored
racist violence in this broader context. While the
general American public is increasingly aware of
horrific brutality by the police, many people do
not think of racist violence perpetrated by the
state as a transnational crisis. Hence, as Smith
acknowledges the names of unarmed Black chil-
dren and youth who have been murdered by police
in US cities in the past five years, she also asserts
that similar state-sponsored terroristic incidences
occur regularly in predominantly Black communi-
ties in Brazil. Smith’s investigations of brutality in
various community settings is a part of her work
as a scholar, but these incidences cut deep into her
own heart as a Black mother. Hence, the naming
of victims, the description of crimes against
humanity perpetrated by the police, and the asser-
tion of comparative perspectives on race and ter-
ror are all important intellectual tools of activist
scholarship that are also personal.
Feminist scholars also recognize that through-
out the African diaspora, the reporting of racial
violence is gendered in that there is a predominant
focus on the targeting of Black males. Both Smith
and Williams make the case that the crisis of ter-
ror in Black communities is not just racist, it is
also sexist. Further, this crisis is grounded in histo-
ries of slavery, colonialism and conquests. In her
article, “Towards a Theorization of Black Maternal
Grief as Analytic,” Rhaisa Williams calls for an
acknowledgement of the murders of girls and
women, indicating that these acknowledgements
strengthen efforts to stop state-sponsored violence
while also recognizing the humanity of the entire
Black community. Smith encourages scholars and
activists to expand their perspectives on this issue
and consider the impact of state-supported violence
on Black males and females in Black communities
throughout the diaspora. She strongly suggests that
anti-Black violence requires an analysis that is both
transnational and feminist. This multidimensional
analysis opens the lens on the impact of police vio-
lence on Black communities and deepens perspec-
tives on the meanings of loss and grief.
Motherhood, Loss, and Grief
The intersection of motherhood, loss, and grief is
a major theme appearing in multiple and diverse
ways in these essays. In particular, Williams’ arti-
cle raises disquieting questions about the visibility
and invisibility of Black maternal mourning.
Here, Williams examines tragedy and loss as
powerful forces in the creation of maternal acti-
vism; however, she also raises very complicated
questions about a mother’s choice to end her life
upon the loss of her child. What can be said
about mothers who appear to make the choice to
end their own grief and suffering through death?
Yet, how does a mother continue to want to
breathe after such an unspeakable loss? Most
analyses of suicide rely on psychological explana-
tions of that choice. While mental health issues
cannot be completely disregarded in this study,
William’s inquiry about the choice of suicide by a
Black mother problematizes the ubiquitous image of
the strong Black mother—a shallow image that
denies Black women the right to be vulnerable,
despite its ubiquity.
In this autoethnographic exploration, Williams
describes a woman who seeks to follow her
deceased child to the next world to save her child’s
soul. She theorizes about the ghoulish choice of
mothering in the space of a grave and asks us to
consider the legitimacy of suicide or a Black
mother’s right to die, even if it means leaving
other children behind. The turmoil in the lives of
this mother and the children she leaves behind,
including one who can now tell the story—seems
unbearable. I find this ethnographic rendering of
pain and suffering provocative and troubling.
However, I also note that whether a Black
mother’s mourning is visible or invisible—whether
the Black maternal response is public or private—
the pain of losing a child is wrenching and bot-
tomless. Almost any choice that a mother makes
in response to that loss can be called courageous.
Smith’s essay, “Facing the Dragon: Black
Mothering, Sequelae, and Gendered Necropolitics
in the Americas,” raises critical questions about
the intentions and impact of anti-Black violence as
a political process during this particularly volatile
period in the United States and Brazil, in which
state-sponsored violence in the form of police bru-
tality is rampant. She theorizes that Black mothers
are enemies of the state not only because they per-
petuate and protect Black lives but also because
Black mothers challenge state oppression and
advocate for their families. Smith also discusses
the deep psychological trauma inflicted on Black
mothers upon the loss of their children through
racialized violence. She contends that, although
violence and loss affect the entire family, “the
impact on Black mothers is gendered and specific
to the intersectional conditions of transnational
anti-Blackness” (Smith, this volume).
Cheryl Rodriguez 65
 Black Mothers’ Conscious and Activist Care
In contrast to the essays that examine state-spon-
sored violence, death, and loss, Riche Barnes’s
research with middle-class Black mothers in the
southern United States explores loss through the
violence of miscarriage or other traumatic birth
outcomes. Barnes’s essay, “She Was a Twin:
Black Strategic Mothering, Race-Work, and the
Politics of Survival,” connects many of these
losses to the stress of multiple responsibilities,
including caring for families and contributing to
the ongoing development of the Black commu-
nity, as well as the invisible work that is inherent
to most women’s daily lived experiences. The
women in Barnes’s study provide care for their
communities through work that the author
describes as racial uplift, a term used by Black
women in the early 20th century club movement.
In a study that engages the insights of over 20
Black, middle-class married mothers, Barnes
examines race work and mothering in a 21st cen-
tury context. This analysis of Black mothers’ com-
munity work underscores the profound impact
that Black women have made to freedom move-
ments as well as to the survival of Black commu-
nities everywhere. Moreover, while there were
always concerns about the safety of activists dur-
ing the civil rights movement, there are few inves-
tigations of health issues related to the stress of
activist work during this era. In her discussion of
Black women’s major roles in civil rights activism,
Giddings (1984) recounts SNCC activist Diane
Nash’s refusal to accept bail after being arrested
and jailed in Mississippi. Nash was pregnant at
the time of her imprisonment and she understood
that her activist work would have a profound
impact on her child’s life as a citizen of the
racially segregated United States. From her jail
cell Nash exclaimed, “I believe that if I go to jail
now it may help hasten that day when my child
and all children will be free—not only on the day
of their birth but for all their lives” (Giddings
1984:279). Similarly, Fleming documents the pow-
erful contributions of SNCC activist Ruby Doris
Smith, whose commitment to social change was
not dampened nor conflicted by motherhood.
However, Ruby Doris Smith died at the age of
25. Fleming argues that some of her friends and
colleagues blamed the social movements of that
time for the young mother’s death: “Some charge
that the unique stresses to which [Ruby Doris
Smith] was subjected because of her status as a
powerful female administrator in SNCC actually
contributed to her death” (Fleming 2001:210).
66 TRANSFORMING ANTHROPOLOGY VOL. 24(1)
Feminist sociologist Nancy Naples uses the
term “activist mothering” to describe women’s
self-conscious struggles against racism, sexism,
poverty, and violence. She argues that the concep-
tualization of activist mothering challenges essen-
tialist interpretations of mothering practices. In
her research on the community-based work of
African American and Hispanic women, Naples
reconceptualizes the interconnectedness of commu-
nity work (labor), political activism, and mother-
ing. She argues that these three aspects of social
life are typically analyzed separately. Yet, activist
mothering brings these factors together. Naples
contends, “Activist mothering not only involves
nurturing work for those outside one’s kinship
group but also encompasses a broad definition of
actual mothering practices” (Naples 1992). Smith’s
ethnographic research challenges essentialist inter-
pretations of mothering by describing the radical
resistance and the horrific murder of Aurina
Rodrigues, a seasoned activist who spoke out
against police torture of her son and daughter.
Smith’s analysis shows us that state-sponsored vio-
lence targets and tortures Black mothers by deny-
ing them the possibility of raising their children in
peace or, even more devastatingly, by denying
mothers the right to see their children live and
become adults. Many of these mothers respond
with anger and grief that is both public and pur-
poseful.
In the United States, Black mothers’ public
and purposeful responses to state-sponsored racial
violence against their children, although not a
recent phenomenon, are embodied by the mothers
of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. In an
online article entitled, “Why the Urgent Anger of
Michael Brown’s Mother Matters,” blogger Aisha
Harris argues that public, highly visible and raw
emotionality of parents like Leslie McSpadden
and Michael Brown, Sr. are “finally forcing us to
face the fact that things won’t change unless voices
like theirs finally start to be heard.”2
Black feminist research contributes to the
sharing, hearing, and witnessing of these messages
from mothers, families, and residents of commu-
nities that are Black, poor, and historically vic-
timized. Through our work with women in poor
communities we learn that mothers’ sorrow and
grief serve as critical weapons in struggles for jus-
tice. For example, in my work with public hous-
ing residents in the United States, I argue that
activism and leadership within poor Black com-
munities typically emerges from and is shaped by
women’s experiences with the politics of race,
gender, poverty, and motherhood. The experience
of being a poor Black woman with children is
often the stimulus for becoming involved in
efforts for social change (Rodriguez 2006). Simi-
larly, Mullings discusses histories of struggle in
Black urban communities, like Harlem, which are
led by Black mothers. She argues, “Efforts to sus-
tain the family have always been inseparable
from efforts to assist the community. African
American women have a long history of commu-
nity work. Inevitably, the attempt to sustain the
community requires measures to transform the
larger society” (Mullings 1997:99). In this volume,
Smith’s essay illustrates that it is this willingness
to seek transformation of the larger society and
to risk punishment, imprisonment, and even
death that confronts and faces down the spiritual
terror of racism. This is the work that Black
mothers are called to do for the sake of their
children’s very lives.
MOTHERING WHILE BLACK: THE
CHALLENGES FOR BLACK FEMINIST
ANTHROPOLOGY
The research and analyses presented in this collec-
tion of articles add new dimensions to anthropo-
logical perspectives on Black motherhood. Black
feminist anthropologists can bring a sense of
humanism and fluidity that disrupts and disman-
tles historically empty representations and analyses
of Black motherhood. To that end, both Williams
and Smith consider the impact of a mother’s death
on those left behind as well as the impact of death
on mothers left behind. Through their ethno-
graphic witnessing, both authors force us to pon-
der the ways in which mothers face and “harness
the power of death” (to use Smith’s eloquent
term). While women, like those in these ethno-
graphic accounts, may appear to be hopeless
actors playing small roles in the theatre of terror
and death, Black feminist anthropology portrays
them as women who made conscious and coura-
geous choices and who articulate visions of justice
for their communities. These Black feminist schol-
ars also complicate the women’s lives by showing
that at any given time these women embody both
human strengths and weaknesses.
While motherhood, domestic responsibilities,
professional ambitions, and community work all
affect Black women’s mental and physical health,
racism continues to take a significant social and
emotional toll. Barnes argues that the middle-class
mothers she interviewed for her study were con-
cerned about the murders of Trayvon Martin,
Michael Brown, and other Black youth. The
mothers in Barnes’s study understood that racial-
ized violence portrays all Black people as criminals
and makes all Black people targets, regardless of
their class status. These Black families are not
protected from racism despite their middle-class
privilege.
Aside from demonstrating the impact of
racism on Black women’s mental and physical
health, Barnes’s research challenges Black women
to analyze their relationships with their families
and others who rely upon these women’s sense of
responsibility. This work is important in decon-
structing the notion of the strong Black woman
who works tirelessly—sometimes in isolation—to
assure her family’s survival and success. Collins
(1990) speaks out against the image of the strong
Black woman, arguing that this form of glorifica-
tion is a refusal to acknowledge critical issues
related to Black women’s lives. Furthermore,
praising Black women for their willingness to sac-
rifice for their families is often a justification to
continue to impose unreasonable demands and
expectations on these mothers, grandmothers,
aunts, and sisters.
Another important connection between these
articles that should be explored further, is that
they each consider the limitations of Black mater-
nal dreams and love. The literature on Black
mothers as domineering and controlling is perva-
sive. Yet, there is very little in the social science
literature on the ways in which Black women
respond to and cope with the unpredictable and
uncontrollable forces of life such as infertility or
the sudden loss of a mother’s children at any age.
It is not enough to simply make the claim that
Black women are strong and resilient. We need
rich interpretations and analyses of Black maternal
responses. At the same time, there is a great need
to understand the social forces that cause violence
to escalate and result in great losses. In her
research with residents of Central Harlem, Mul-
lings notes an acute concern with losing children
to drug abuse and random violence. She contends,
“Today, the leap of faith to envision continuity
through children must be as great as it was during
the days of slavery” (1997:93).
The title and theme of this volume suggests
that Black mothers’ deepest concerns and emo-
tions are vulnerable to the anthropological gaze. If
this is true, it is critical that Black feminist anthro-
pologists commit to examining Black motherhood
in all its contours and contexts. While it is impor-
tant to witness the urgent anguish and theorize
Cheryl Rodriguez 67
about the ways in which Black mothers stand up
to grief and terror, it is also urgent that our work
challenge persistent stereotypes about Black
women and Black motherhood. In various forms
of popular media, including newspapers and televi-
sion, the murdering of Black youth by police often
raises questions about Black mothering practices,
thus blaming Black women at the most painful
times of their lives. A number of Black feminist
scholars have written about the frustrations of
wading through the negative stereotypes about
Black motherhood. In an essay entitled, “The
Impossibility of the Good Black Mother,” Tope
Fadiran Charlton argues, “from the pediatrician’s
office to the streets I call my own, it is not the
myth of the good mother, but that of the Bad
Black mother, that renders my motherhood at
turns, invisible and suspect” (Charlton 2013:1).
Furthermore, in her detailed analysis of the impact
of controlling images on social policy, Julia Jor-
dan-Zachery argues that the intersection of gender,
race, and class often prevents Black women from
the protection and support necessary to be “good”
mothers and women, although they are judged by
the hegemonic image of the “good” woman
(2009:116). How, indeed, do we create tension
between prevailing ideas about good mothering
and the practices of women whose primary focus
for their children is survival?
Finally, all three of the contributors to this
volume make some reference to the roles of
“othermothers.” These othermothers may be sis-
ters, aunts, or childless women who are willing to
share responsibilities for nurturing children, youth,
and communities. In these times of protest and
civil unrest about the killing of Black mothers’
children and the unnecessary losses endured by
Black families, our work should continue to revisit
the ways in which Black women—as othermothers
—have given birth to institutions and organiza-
tions in the name of freedom. We must remember
that as the mother of the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee, Ella Baker articulated a
rationale for unrelenting civil action when she
said, “Until the killing of Black men, Black moth-
ers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the
country as the killing of White mothers’ sons, we
who believe in freedom cannot rest.”3 Baker’s
words were more than just an appeal for the lives
of Black males, Baker was also humanizing Black
women, whose roles as mothers to Black children
had been historically diminished, caricatured, and
disregarded by the White population. Fannie Lou
Hamer was also an othermother who transformed
68 TRANSFORMING ANTHROPOLOGY VOL. 24(1)
the civil rights movement not only by her activist
vision of freedom but also through her caring
interactions with the youth of the Student Nonvio-
lent Coordinating Committee, who came to her
town of Ruleville, Mississippi in 1962. As James
argues, “Historically othermothering and commu-
nity othermothering have been critical to the sur-
vival of Black communities” (1993:51). These
nontraditional forms of mothering are powerful
and critical as we continue contemporary struggles
for Black lives everywhere. Through their expres-
sions of pain and loss, through their public and
private outrage, Black mothers make Black lives
matter. In the names of Ella Baker, Fannie Lou
Hamer, and all the “othermothers” who paved
paths to freedom for all of us: let Black mothers’
sorrow be more than an artifact of oppression and
violence—let their sorrow, pain, and grief be
sources of inspiration to feminist minds. Let their
sorrow, pain, and grief be forces for seeking jus-
tice, peace, and safety for our children.
Cheryl Rodriguez Africana Studies, University
of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33621;
crodriguez@usf.edu
NOTES
1. There is one essay in this collection that is
not by an anthropologist. The inclusion of this
piece to the project demonstrates the receptivity to
interdisciplinary collaboration that is also an
important component of Black feminist thought.
2. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/
11/25/michael_brown_s_mother_why_the_video_of_
leslie_mcspadden_s_anguish_at_the.html
3. http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/
child-watch-columns/child-watch-documents/ella-
baker-civil-rights.html
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