To be the Black mother of a child who appears white can raise all kinds of questions and comments from strangers. Even the “nice” comments are loaded with assumptions about beauty and belonging. By listening to her own family history, reading the narratives of women who raised children while enslaved in her home state of North Carolina, and drawing inspiration from Mildred and Richard Loving, one mother pushes back on the assumption that she must be “the nanny.” Read HERE.
Always a Mammy, never the Mom. Or so it felt under the jaundiced eyes of white strangers. But Black women, with skin spanning the spectrum of glorious brown hues, have never once assumed I was anything other than my daughter’s mother. We know well the varieties of skin tones, facial features, and hair textures that can make our children shine.
Jasmin Pittman Morrell