Shifting the Center: Race, Class, and Feminist Theorizing About Motherhood

I really enjoyed reading this piece a lot. I think this piece did a great job of highlighting struggles that people in privileged situations do not always take into consideration. I found the fact on page 642 to be a complete shock. It says, "African American children face an infant mortality rate twice that for white infants...and one-half of African American children who survive infancy live in poverty." This statistic was a real eye opener. She made the problems of white- middle class families seem so small in comparison. She starts off that whole section by saying, "Physical survival is assumed for children who are white and middle-class." The way she wrote this piece was so bold and well stated. It really makes you thankful for what you have. As white women are looking to assert their independence, there are many women of different races constantly working to keep up the community for their children. It is actually very inspirational. Another point I wanted to bring up was on page 648. It talks about how children of color are constantly bombarded with negative images or stereotypes in media that reflect their culture. As a future teacher, this is really concerning to me. I want to make sure that I always infuse multicultural aspects into my lesson- that reflect all types of people (not just stereotypes). It must be so hard for children to grow up and assert themselves as individuals and not be forced to assimilate into the mainstream culture they see in school and in media. This is something I am going to pay close attention to as a teacher. Lastly, I liked a paragraph on page 647. It talked about how many black women receive respect within communities for not only mothering their "blood children." The paragraph talks about black women developing their communities and being mothers to children that aren't biologically their own. I witnessed this first had at my summer job and it is quite empowering. I worked at a YMCA summer camp in Buffalo. It was a predominately African American community, and it was quite clear how close this community was. Everybody knew everybody and many of the adult women who were head figures at the camp were considered mothers to the children and were given the highest level of respect. I saw how hard these parents worked and how much they appreciated each other for taking care of their children. It was amazing to watch everyone come together to help these children grow.