Black Moms Do More Than Cook, Cuss and Beat Kids

In a blog entry at Essence.com, Janelle Harris takes on the stereotyping of black mothers, especially those recently arising from the "Shโ€” people say" viral videos. She reflects on her own experience to point out that black mothers have a long history of commitment to family. Suggested Reading We Finally Know Why Trump and Obama…

In a blog entry at Essence.com, Janelle Harris takes on the stereotyping of black mothers, especially those recently arising from the "Shโ€” people say" viral videos. She reflects on her own experience to point out that black mothers have a long history of commitment to family.

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Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?

Finally, the โ€œstuff so-and-so saysโ€ says mania has died down. Everybody and their cousinโ€™s nephew had a video. Stuff Malaysian cooks say. Stuff tall kayakers say. Stuff Macyโ€™s shoplifters say. My all-time, hands down favorite, though, was the one about what White girls say to Black girls. Back when I was a teenager who fooled around and thought a little too highly of myself, my mother knocked me down a peg or two by moving me from the city to Amish (and redneck) country in Pennsylvania, where I had the distinct experience of being one of seven โ€” count โ€˜em, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 โ€” Black kids in a student body of more than 1,600. So that video was especially hilarious to me because Iโ€™ve been on the receiving end of just about all of those comments more than once during my Misadventures as Representative Black Girl. The real hilarity behind those videos โ€” even though they are wrought with stereotypical, borderline offensive potshots that put the subjects in the comedic crosshairs of their creators โ€” is that thereโ€™s at least a little bit of truth behind them. But some of them went way over the top, and that includes one I watched about Black moms. It was one of the drier ones Iโ€™ve seen so I didnโ€™t make it all the way through before I clicked it off, mainly because it depicted our mothers as belt-wielding and crass-talking. And it would have been completely forgettable, had it not been for #Blackmomscatchphrase, a trending topic on Twitter last week that basically saddled us with the same sweeping generalizations as the video did. Dang, I thought to myself, do Black mamas say anything that doesnโ€™t involve threatening physical harm? โ€˜Cause word on the street is we canโ€™t communicate with our children without making cutting remarks or breaking some poor childโ€™s spirit (or worse). I am a Black mom. And my mom โ€” sheโ€™s a Black mom, too. And so was my Nana. And never not once did my mother address me with a three, five or twelve-letter slur (Iโ€™ll let you figure out what those are on your own). Sure, I got lectured about running in and out of the house and jumping on the furniture. And if I asked her to go to McDonaldโ€™s, she would whip right back and ask me โ€œYou got McDonaldโ€™s money?โ€ That much rings true. But she didnโ€™t spend the preponderance of her time devising new ways of saying she was going to kick my tail.

Read Janelle Harris' entire blog entry at Essence.com.

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