The Ethos of Black Motherhood in America: Only White Women Get Pregnant examines the ethos of Black and white mothers in America's racialized society. Kimberly C. Harper argues that the current Black maternal health crisis is not a new one, but an existing one rooted in the disregard for Black wombs dating back to America's history with chattel slavery. Examining the reproductive laws that controlled the reproductive experiences of black women, Harper provides a fresh insight into the “bad black mother” trope that Black feminist scholars have theorized and argues that the controlling images of black motherhood are a creation of the American nation-state. In addition to a discussion of black motherhood, Harper also explores the image of white motherhood as the center of the landscape of motherhood. Scholars of communication, gender studies, women’s studies, history, and race studies will find this book particularly useful.
This book considers Black Motherhood through multiple and global lenses to engage the reader in an expanded reflection and to prompt further discourse on the intersection of race and gender within the construct of motherhood among Black women. With an aim to extend traditional treatments of Black motherhood that are often centered on a subordinated and struggling perspective, these essays address some of the hegemonic reality while also exploring nuance in experiences, less explored areas of subjugation, as well as pathways of resistance and resilience in spite of it. Largely focusing within domains such as narrative, identity, spirituality and sexuality, the book deftly explores black motherhood by incorporating varied arenas for discussion including: literary analysis, expressive arts, historical fiction, the African Diaspora, reproductive health, religion and social ecology.
This book uniquely explores American cultural values as a factor in maternal health. It looks beyond the social determinants of health as primarily contributing to the escalating maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. The United States is an outlier with poor maternal health outcomes and high morbidity/mortality in comparison to other high-resource and many mid-level resource nations. While the social determinants of health identify social and environmental conditions affecting maternal health, they do not answer the broader underlying question of why many American women, in a high-resource environment, experience poor maternal health outcomes. Frequent near-misses, high levels of severe childbearing-related morbidity, and high maternal mortality are comparable to those of lower-resource nations. This book includes contributions from recognized medical and cultural anthropologists, and diverse clinical and public health professionals. The authors examine American patterns of decision-making from the perspectives of intersecting social, cultural, and medical values influencing maternal health outcomes. Using an interdisciplinary critical analysis approach, the work draws upon decision-making theory and life course theory. Topics explored include: Cultural values as a basis for decision-making Social regard for motherhood Immigrants, refugees and undocumented mothers Cultural conflicts and maternal autonomy Health outcomes among justice-involved mothers Maternal Health and American Cultural Values: Beyond the Social Determinants is an essential resource for clinical and public health practitioners and their students, providing a framework for graduate-level courses in public health, the health sciences, women’s studies, and the social sciences. The book also targets anthropologists, sociologists, and women studies scholars seeking to explain the links between American cultural decision-making and health outcomes. Policy-makers, ethicists, journalists, and advocates for reproductive health justice also would find the text a useful resource.
The African American single-parent family has tended to be a scapegoat for a variety of social problems, ranging from poverty to drug abuse. As a result, there exists much misinformation about this family form. In this collection, the African American matriarchal family is re-evaluated to present a more informed picture of its actual structure and functioning. From an Afrocentric feminist perspective, contributors examine the history, legal dilemmas, media images and religious values of these families. The roles of children, grandparents, fathers, other support figures and the government are reviewed. This insider view of these households concludes with suggestions of more effective and sensitive policy approaches to this t
Childfree and Happy examines how millennia of reproductive beliefs (or doxa) have positioned women who choose not to have children as deviant or outside the norm. Considering affect and emotion alongside the lived experiences of women who have chosen not to have children, Courtney Adams Wooten offers a new theoretical lens to feminist rhetorical scholars’ examinations of reproductive rhetorics and how they circulate through women’s lives by paying attention not just to spoken or written beliefs but also to affectual circulations of reproductive doxa. Through interviews with thirty-four childfree women and analysis of childfree rhetorics circulating in historical and contemporary texts and events, this book demonstrates how childfree women individually and collectively try to speak back to common beliefs about their reproductive experiences, even as they struggle to make their identities legible in a sociocultural context that centers motherhood. Childfree and Happy theorizes how affect and rhetoric work together to circulate reproductive doxa by using Sara Ahmed’s theories of gendered happiness scripts to analyze what reproductive doxa is embedded in those scripts and how they influence rhetoric by, about, and around childfree women. Delving into how childfree women position their decision not to have children and the different types of interactions they have with others about this choice, including family members, friends, colleagues, and medical professionals, Childfree and Happy also explores how communities that make space for alternative happiness scripts form between childfree women and those who support them. It will be of interest to scholars in the fields of the rhetoric of motherhood/mothering, as well as feminist rhetorical studies.
From the Author of WOVEN: Womanhood and Unveiling Gods Beauty, through the use of poetry and essays, In A High Place is an intimate reflection of Black motherhood and the growth of a woman finding her way back to herself. Caneeka shares the pain of miscarriage, embraces the identity challenges of motherhood, celebrates the power of the collective, and reminds us of God's strength in times of uncertainty. Navigating the identity struggle that happens as you attempt to rediscover who you are after becoming a mother, Caneeka empowers mothers to be gracious as they find their way back into the high places--Determined to see the beauty of the bigger picture of their motherhood and holding it deep within their hearts. Each piece is a call to transparency, truth, and a reminder of our freedom even in the face of oppression. Why should we care about a man in Minneapolis or a young boy in Florida? Even in our brokenness, Black mothers heal one another through our shared love for change. In A High Place: Black Motherhood and a Woman Rising poetry collection is an invitation for Black mothers to envision the community we need and the healing we deserve when we honor our spirits from the high places on our journey.
This interdisciplinary anthology contributes to the contemporary dialogues about motherhood/mothering drawing attention to the experiences of motherhood/mothering both within medical practice as physicians as well as highlighting motherhood/mothering experiences of medicine, examining both mothers as patients themselves and with their children as patients. As medical schools steadily increase the number of women studying medicine, research on mothers in medical practice would add to a better understanding on the different values, expectations, institutions, and events that shape and define the identities within medicine. How does the increase of women as mothers practicing medicine affect the outcomes of mothers as patients? Does birthing your own child impact your practice? Does knowing your physician or your child's physician is a mother affect your experience as a patient or that of your child's? The edited volume will explore how relationships between motherhood/mothering experiences in/of medicine are presently being theorized, re-examined, negotiated, and most importantly, debated. This is an interdisciplinary volume which unites essays as well as creative submissions that engage with the issue of motherhood experiences in/of medicine, including works of fiction and creative non-fiction in addition to traditional academic writing, allowing an open and innovative space for critical discussion.
A warm, wise, and urgent guide to parenting in uncertain times, from a longtime reporter on race, reproductive health, and politics In We Live for the We, first-time mother Dani McClain sets out to understand how to raise her daughter in what she, as a black woman, knows to be an unjust--even hostile--society. Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy or birth than any other race; black mothers must stand before television cameras telling the world that their slain children were human beings. What, then, is the best way to keep fear at bay and raise a child so she lives with dignity and joy? McClain spoke with mothers on the frontlines of movements for social, political, and cultural change who are grappling with the same questions. Following a child's development from infancy to the teenage years, We Live for the We touches on everything from the importance of creativity to building a mutually supportive community to navigating one's relationship with power and authority. It is an essential handbook to help us imagine the society we build for the next generation.
In The Affirmative Discomforts of Black Female Authorship, the author examines how three popular black female authors (Roxane Gay, Beyoncé and Issa Rae) simultaneously complement and complicate hegemonic notions of race, identity and gender in contemporary American culture.
The Stories of Building the Black Beach Community of Ocean City, North Carolina shares a provocative story about a small Black beach community on North Topsail Island, North Carolina. Hope Jackson argues that stories like these not only offer a rich, untold perspective about Black lives, but also shares the depth of this Black community despite originating under the threat of violence in the segregated South. Brick by Brick acknowledges the defiance of a group of Black individuals who, collectively, provided a recreational oceanfront haven. These radical Black folks created a safe harbor for Blacks to visit, live, worship, and recreate in the midst of de facto segregation. The author reveals an embedded narrative which highlights the rebelliousness of Ocean City women’s strategic mothering. Jackson shares how the impact of this location extended beyond a vacation by creating Christian worship opportunities and an Episcopal summer youth camp for Black youth. The Ocean City stories remind readers that despite Jim Crow’s demise, the need for a safe, recreational space remains necessary for Black people in today’s society.
