Appreciating mothers | The Columbus Post

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When mainstream feminists criticize Michelle Obama for embracing the Mom-in-Chief title instead of pursuing what they consider to be more substantive issues, they fail to understand the history of a group of women who were long denied the luxury of spending time on their children?s well-being.

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When Mother?s Day was first celebrated in America in the first decade of the 20th century, the day was supposed to honor the world?s mothers, grandmothers, and other maternal figures. But faces from certain communities have frequently been missing from that celebration.

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Since their arrival in America, African Americans have had a complicated approach to parenting their children. Ripped apart from their sons and daughters during slavery, black women were later hindered from spending significant time with their children because they had to work outside the home to help support their family. Often that work involved taking care of and mothering other people?s children.

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In 1965, a report by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then Assistant Secretary of Labor, on ?The Negro Family? ignited what would become an almost 50-year-old debate over the responsibilities of black mothers, frequently characterized as being on public assistance, in the disintegrating state of African-American families. For many Americans, that became the dominant image instead of the true representation of the diversity and complexity of Black motherhood. Because they are often presented as violent, uneducated and rarely as well-rounded individuals in mainstream movies, television and other media, black women are seldom viewed as nurturing mothers and wives. As a result, strong accomplished figures such as Claire Huxtable, the female lead on the Cosby Show, were often dismissed as fantasy.

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The debate that resulted from Moynihan?s report often misses the complexities of raising a black child in a society that is often hostile to both the parents and children. While Black families don?t suffer from any greater pathology than other American families, the death of Trayvon Martin illustrates that black parents at all economic and social levels have long had to navigate perilous waters when it comes to the safety and well-being of their children. That navigation requires strength, determination and wisdom, traits that many unheralded mothers demonstrate every day.

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In addition to Mrs. Obama, groups of black women such as Mocha Moms are uplifting black mothers and showing why instead of vilifying them, Americans should celebrate the achievements of black motherhood.

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Source: http://columbuspost.com/appreciating-mothers/

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