Black Women and Motherhood [1991]

African-American women need an Afrocentric feminist analysis of motherhood that debunks the image of "happy slave", whether the white-male-created "matriarch" or the Black-male-perpetuated "superstrong Black mother". The institution of Black motherhood consists of a series of constantly renegotiated relationships that African-American women experience with one another, with Black children, with the larger African-American community, and with self. Women who assist bloodmothers by sharing mothering responsibilities—traditionally have been central to the institution of Black motherhood. Black mothers of daughters face a troubling dilemma. On one hand, to ensure their daughters' physical survival, mothers must teach them to fit into systems of oppression. Black women's experiences as othermothers provide a foundation for Black women's political activism. Community othermothers have made important contributions in building a different type of community in often hostile political and economic surroundings. Community othermothers' actions demonstrate a clear rejection of separateness and individual interest as the basis of either community organization or individual self-actualization.