A continued exploitation of the Black Female body today
As a Black woman, being part of the working world can be very tiresome. Reason being, the workplace is where most Black women, including myself, has experienced racism. A subtle sort of racism that comes in the form of coded everyday language between employees. The sort of language that you sometimes think is too subtle to report but lingers in the depths of your mind until you realize, how racist it truly was. Popular series like, Insecure showcase similar relationships in the workplace. In “Black Women and Motherhood”, Patricia Collins, analyses the old images used to describe Black women to create an identity that is not hinged on historically based narratives. Through the use of Collin’s work and examples from Issa Rae’s Insecure, I show how “Other Mothering” has become a workplace activity rather a community based one.
In the beginning of the section, Collins starts off by emphasizing that the freedom of Black people is contingent of the subjugation of Black women. This subjugation is as a result of popular notions of “mother glorification” that enforces the ideals of Black women being strong. Although these notions are built on the immediate acts of Black women in navigating their social landscape, the glorification is hinged on the resulting male figure that comes from the woman. As a result, “U.S Black men inadvertently foster different albeit seemingly positive image for Black women” but as a nostalgic reference to Black women. It does not place a heightened sense of honoring Black women, it emphasizes the Black woman in relation to the Black man. These differing views become more apparent when looking at the way in which the daughters of Black women look at and internalize the actions of their mothers. To the daughters of Black women, their mothers life of duality. A life where they are “balancing the need for the physical survival of their daughters [while] encouraging them to transcend the boundaries of sexual politics” controlling the Black body. Here, Collins illustrates that black men look back and see their mothers as strong whereas daughters see a duality to the nature of their mothers. These differing views are simply linked to the gendered differences and the way the United states chooses to police Black bodies.
Although the United States is known to police Black bodies, the Strategic policing or control of Black female bodies is hinged to the need of the government controlling the sexuality of Black women. However, through controlling these Black bodies through sexual politics, varying mothering networks developed in Black communities. In the text, Collins highlights, bloodmothers and othermothers as some of the main sources of care through the fictive kin network. Fictive kin is the inclusion of non-biologically related individuals in the family network. The growth fo fictive kin relations has always been linked to the separation of African Slaves from their biological kin during slavery. This forced separation created a loosely based ideal surround family and kin. In the case of Othermothers and Bloodmothers, Othermothers arise when there is a need within the community. This may look like babysitting your neighbors children or looking out for them knowing their home life situation. The growth of Othermothers became essential to the Black community due to the limited jobs and resources available to them. For instance, most Black women worked in the service industry which meant that they spend their work hours caring for another family then having to do the same when they get home. These Othermothers became essential in providing care where Bloodmothers couldn’t.
Despite the origins of Othermothers, today Black women are still being forced into care positions. In “You can’t Choose to walk away: Black women detail their experiences with racism in the Workplace,” Hinchliffe describes the stories of racism by different Black women. Like my experience, shown in the introduction, these women describe the experience of racism at work as being highly uncomfortable yet subtle. The subtleness associated with these acts hinges on the prolonged investment into Othermothering by the Black community. In the workplace, Black women are forced to engage in situations of microaggression that at times forces them to educate their racial counterparts. In these conversations, Black women are forced to speak not only for themselves but the entire Black community. In doing this, it brings Black women back into that position of teaching and caring however this time it is taking place in and with a community that they are forced to engage with. This forced engagement feeds into the duality of being a Black woman, knowing how to use opportunities for your mobility and still empowerment.
As previously discussed, Black women must learn how to engage in forced “Other mothering” in the workplace. The expectation that Black women will represent the entire Black community as well as deal with situations of microaggression can be seen in films such as Insecure. In Insecure, Issa Rae works at a non-profit organization “We Got Ya’ll”. The organization’s aim is to help Black and Brown students from impoverished areas and high schools. In being the only woman of color, Issa is giving the task of talking up for marginalized communities, protecting herself of being the spokesperson of the community while still having to prove herself as a valuable employee. At one point in the series, Issa becomes torn between her morals and her drive to be acknowledged within the workspace. Here, Issa experiences a similar duality to what Collins describes in the relationship between mothers and daughters. Black women are aware of the emotional strain that comes with working due to being made an othermother by society while using her position as a means of upward mobility.
