{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/115821"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/115821","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Black moms matter: competing discourses of black motherhood in the age of black lives matter","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-14 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-14 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Wilson, Kerry B"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Communications and Media","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Molina-Guzmán, Isabel","McCarthy, Cameron","Valdivia, Angharad N","Scott, Karla D."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-05","date_published":"2022-05","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:55Z","subjects":["Michelle Obama","The Help","Black mothers","Black motherhood","Black Lives Matter","Trayvon Martin","Michael Brown","Lesley McSpadden","Sybrina Fulton"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2022 Kerry Wilson"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115821","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Molina-Guzmán, Isabel","McCarthy, Cameron","Valdivia, Angharad N","Scott, Karla D."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Wilson, Kerry B"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2022-05","2022-04-21"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Communications and Media"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Michelle Obama","The Help","Black mothers","Black motherhood","Black Lives Matter","Trayvon Martin","Michael Brown","Lesley McSpadden","Sybrina Fulton"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2022 Kerry Wilson"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115821"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-14 without embargo terms","The student, Kerry Wilson, accepted the attached license on 2022-04-19 at 15:44.","The student, Kerry Wilson, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-04-19 at 15:54.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-04-21 at 16:45.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #17817 on 2022-11-14 at 17:34:04","In this dissertation, I examine discourses of Black motherhood using three case studies to understand how media reinforce and challenge discourses of deviant Black motherhood. Chapter 2 of this dissertation begins with a case study of The Help (Taylor, 2011) which explores how the Black domestic functions as a maternal figure in service to middle-class white women to the detriment of their own Black children. In this chapter, I argue the representation of Black domestic workers function to redefine Black motherhood as a tool to stabilize the racial superiority of whiteness within the context of the so-called post-racial/post-feminist era of the Barack Obama presidential administration. In Chapter 3, I engage Michelle Obama’s public relations campaign to re/define herself as the first Black First Lady of the United States. Specifically, I analyze Michelle Obama’s mom-in-chief discourse as an example of the use of strategic ambiguity used to universalize and individualize Black motherhood on the national political stage. Rebranding herself as “mom-in-chief” allowed Obama to make herself relatable to her white constituents by reproducing the norms of motherhood present in white heteronormative, middle-class, families. Conversely, Obama’s reinforcement of a conceptualization of Blackness that exists in contrast to the prevailing stereotypes of Black women and mothers as uninvolved in their children’s lives and dependent on government assistance implicitly reinforced mediated discourses of poor and working-class Black people as socially deviant—unlike Michelle Obama. Finally, in Chapter 4 I explore Black motherhood in relationship to the Black Lives Matter movement. By studying online news reports featuring Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, and Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown Jr., I study media constructions of Black motherhood as a representative of Black death. I argue Fulton and McSpadden efforts to use their grief to speak through their sons’ stories to challenge the mediated representations of their sons as thugs bump up against a discursive narrative that demands white audiences fully understand and universalize an experience rooted in white supremacy. Together the case studies illustrate the mechanisms by which media representations of Black mothers reproduce a discourse that positions Black mothers as sexually deviant and disposable."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Black moms matter: competing discourses of black motherhood in the age of black lives matter"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Molina-Guzmán, Isabel","McCarthy, Cameron","Valdivia, Angharad N","Scott, Karla D."],"dc:creator":["Wilson, Kerry B"],"dc:date":["2022-05","2022-04-21"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2022-11-14 without embargo terms","The student, Kerry Wilson, accepted the attached license on 2022-04-19 at 15:44.","The student, Kerry Wilson, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-04-19 at 15:54.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-04-21 at 16:45.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #17817 on 2022-11-14 at 17:34:04","In this dissertation, I examine discourses of Black motherhood using three case studies to understand how media reinforce and challenge discourses of deviant Black motherhood. Chapter 2 of this dissertation begins with a case study of The Help (Taylor, 2011) which explores how the Black domestic functions as a maternal figure in service to middle-class white women to the detriment of their own Black children. In this chapter, I argue the representation of Black domestic workers function to redefine Black motherhood as a tool to stabilize the racial superiority of whiteness within the context of the so-called post-racial/post-feminist era of the Barack Obama presidential administration. In Chapter 3, I engage Michelle Obama’s public relations campaign to re/define herself as the first Black First Lady of the United States. Specifically, I analyze Michelle Obama’s mom-in-chief discourse as an example of the use of strategic ambiguity used to universalize and individualize Black motherhood on the national political stage. Rebranding herself as “mom-in-chief” allowed Obama to make herself relatable to her white constituents by reproducing the norms of motherhood present in white heteronormative, middle-class, families. Conversely, Obama’s reinforcement of a conceptualization of Blackness that exists in contrast to the prevailing stereotypes of Black women and mothers as uninvolved in their children’s lives and dependent on government assistance implicitly reinforced mediated discourses of poor and working-class Black people as socially deviant—unlike Michelle Obama. Finally, in Chapter 4 I explore Black motherhood in relationship to the Black Lives Matter movement. By studying online news reports featuring Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, and Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown Jr., I study media constructions of Black motherhood as a representative of Black death. I argue Fulton and McSpadden efforts to use their grief to speak through their sons’ stories to challenge the mediated representations of their sons as thugs bump up against a discursive narrative that demands white audiences fully understand and universalize an experience rooted in white supremacy. Together the case studies illustrate the mechanisms by which media representations of Black mothers reproduce a discourse that positions Black mothers as sexually deviant and disposable."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115821"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2022 Kerry Wilson"],"dc:subject":["Michelle Obama","The Help","Black mothers","Black motherhood","Black Lives Matter","Trayvon Martin","Michael Brown","Lesley McSpadden","Sybrina Fulton"],"dc:title":["Black moms matter: competing discourses of black motherhood in the age of black lives matter"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Communications and Media"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:55Z"}