Black Maternal Identity

Black Mother's have struggled with a history that would not allow them to claim their own children or to claim themselves as mothers

 

 

As Beloved has shown, this history perpetuates the "Thick Love" evident in many black mother-child relationships.

 

 

As black mothers have struggled with their maternal identity (the foundation of this best articulated by Angela Davis' concept of the "ungendered black mother"), the "myth of matriarchy" has been imposed on them by a white patriarchal society. This myth renders the black mother unfit, and asserts her as the cause for the destruction of the black family.

 

 

As this history has intergenerational effects, the act of claiming is complexly performed in black mother-child relationships.