Black moms matter: competing discourses of black motherhood in the age of black lives matter

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communications and Media

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Wilson, Kerry B

Contributors dc:contributor

• Molina-Guzmán, Isabel
• McCarthy, Cameron
• Valdivia, Angharad N
• Scott, Karla D.

• Michelle Obama
• The Help
• Black mothers
• Black motherhood
• Black Lives Matter
• Trayvon Martin
• Michael Brown
• Lesley McSpadden
• Sybrina Fulton

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Kerry Wilson

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115821

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115821