Birthing Black Mothers

In Birthing Black Mothers Black feminist theorist Jennifer C. Nash examines how the figure of the "Black mother" has become a powerful political category. "Mothering while Black" has become synonymous with crisis as well as a site of cultural interest, empathy, fascination, and support. Cast as suffering and traumatized by their proximity to Black death--especially through medical racism and state-sanctioned police violence--Black mothers are often rendered as one-dimensional symbols of tragic heroism. In contrast, Nash examines Black mothers' self-representations and public performances of motherhood--including Black doulas and breastfeeding advocates alongside celebrities such as Beyoncé, Serena Williams, and Michelle Obama--that are not rooted in loss. Through cultural critique and in-depth interviews, Nash acknowledges the complexities of Black motherhood outside its use as political currency. Throughout, Nash imagines a Black feminist project that refuses the lure of locating the precarity of Black life in women and instead invites readers to theorize, organize, and dream into being new modes of Black motherhood.

Author: Jennifer C. Nash
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 08/20/2021
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.78lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.55d
ISBN13: 9781478014423
ISBN10: 1478014423
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | African American & Black Studies
- Social Science | Women's Studies
- Family & Relationships | Parenting | Motherhood

About the Author
Jennifer C. Nash is Jean Fox O'Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University and author of The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography and Black Feminism Reimagined, both also published by Duke University Press.