Bio
Danielle Procope Bell is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a Black feminist researcher who studies the intersection of motherhood with paid and unpaid labor, femininity practices, and community activism from the late nineteenth-century through the twenty-first century.
Abstract
Existing cultural narratives about Black motherhood impact the wellbeing of Black mothers and their children and directly influence the persistence of Black maternal health disparities. I turn to the “mammy” and “welfare queen” stereotypes because they function to concretize existing views of Black mothers as destructive, lazy, and wasteful when they direct their care and resources towards Black children. I argue that the “mammy” and “welfare queen” stereotypes work in concert with each other to dismiss the Black mother/child bond and this results in what I term the disallowing of Black mothering. I define Black mothering as Black mothers and othermothers taking care of and being emotionally and materially present for their children and able to protect and provide on their behalf. Lastly, I connect the disallowing of Black mothering with the disproportionate rate of Black maternal and infant mortality. I argue that by focusing on addressing racist and sexist cultural narratives about Black mothers, Black maternal health advocates can address one of the root causes of Black maternal health disparities—the perceived unworthiness of Black mothers having and accessing institutional and state resources.
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