Work for black women has been an important and valued dimension of Afrocentric definitions of black motherhood.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the significance of black women's work in defining black motherhood from an Afrocentric perspective.
Patricia Hill Collins highlights that the contributions and labor of black women are integral to understanding black motherhood within the context of Afrocentric values and definitions. By acknowledging this, she asserts the importance of elevating these experiences and perspectives in discussions about motherhood and cultural identity.
In practice
In a discussion on the roles of women in cultural identity, one could reference this quote to highlight the unique contributions of black mothers.
Oppressed groups are frequently placed in the situation of being listened to only if we frame our ideas in the language that is familiar to and comfortable for a dominant group. This requirement often changes the meaning of our ideas and works to elevate the ideas of dominant groups.
To maintain their power, dominant groups create and maintain a popular system of 'commonsense' ideas that support their right to rule. In the United States, hegemonic ideologies concerning race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation are often so pervasive that it is difficult to conceptualize alternatives to them, let alone ways of resisting the social practices that they justify.
The role model approach to social change is no substitute for challenging unjust employment practices, educational policies and housing.
Challenging power structures from the inside, working the cracks within the system, however, requires learning to speak multiple languages of power convincingly.
Under the color-blind ideology of the new racism, Blackness must be SEEN as evidence for the alleged color blindness that seemingly characterizes contemporary economic opportunity.
It is from God that parents receive their children, and it is to God that they should lead them.
After my parents passed away - in 2000 and 2003 - I felt I could take the time to think about the past and imagine what it would have been like to be my grandmother.
I got a lot of support from my parents. That's the one thing I always appreciated. They didn't tell me I was being stupid; they told me I was being funny.
Fathering imposed an obligation that was more than your money, your body, or your time, a presence neither physical nor measurable by clocks: open-ended, eternal, and invisible, like the commitment of gravity to the stars.
I would look at a dog and when our eyes met, I realized that the dog and all creatures are my family. They're like you and me.
The only gift my dad ever bought me is still in my jewelry box. It died at 10 minutes to 11 decades ago, but the gold Caravelle watch keeps my dad alive. A watch isn't about keeping time. It's about stopping it.
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