TY - JOUR
T1 - Creating and Undoing Legacies of Resilience
T2 - Black Women as Martyrs in the Black Community Under Oppressive Social Control
AU - Aniefuna, Leah Iman
AU - Amari Aniefuna, M.
AU - Williams, Jason M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2020/9/2
Y1 - 2020/9/2
N2 - This paper contextualizes the struggles and contributions of Black motherhood and reproductive justice under police surveillance in Baltimore, Maryland. We conducted semi-structured interviews with mothers regarding their experiences and perceptions of policing in their community during the aftermath of the police-involved death of Freddie Gray. While the literature disproportionately focuses on Black males, little knowledge is known about the struggles and contributions of Black mothers in matters concerning police brutality and the fight against institutional violence. There still remains the question regarding the role of and impact on Black mothers during matters of institutional violence against Black children. We fill this gap by highlighting narratives and lived knowledges within a Black motherhood perspective. Primary themes show that Black women are subject to terror from police and system agents, they face reproductive justice issues, as they are criminalized as mothers—and are affected mentally, but they employ various resistance strategies that strengthen their resilience. Results indicate that Black women are the backbone and martyrs of their communities, but this comes at a tremendous cost because they remain largely unprotected and subject to immeasurable institutional violence and judgment against their mothering strategies.
AB - This paper contextualizes the struggles and contributions of Black motherhood and reproductive justice under police surveillance in Baltimore, Maryland. We conducted semi-structured interviews with mothers regarding their experiences and perceptions of policing in their community during the aftermath of the police-involved death of Freddie Gray. While the literature disproportionately focuses on Black males, little knowledge is known about the struggles and contributions of Black mothers in matters concerning police brutality and the fight against institutional violence. There still remains the question regarding the role of and impact on Black mothers during matters of institutional violence against Black children. We fill this gap by highlighting narratives and lived knowledges within a Black motherhood perspective. Primary themes show that Black women are subject to terror from police and system agents, they face reproductive justice issues, as they are criminalized as mothers—and are affected mentally, but they employ various resistance strategies that strengthen their resilience. Results indicate that Black women are the backbone and martyrs of their communities, but this comes at a tremendous cost because they remain largely unprotected and subject to immeasurable institutional violence and judgment against their mothering strategies.
KW - Black feminism
KW - black feminist criminology
KW - black motherhood
KW - policing
KW - race
KW - reproductive justice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084413313&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08974454.2020.1752352
DO - 10.1080/08974454.2020.1752352
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084413313
SN - 0897-4454
VL - 30
SP - 356
EP - 373
JO - Women and Criminal Justice
JF - Women and Criminal Justice
IS - 5
ER -