MaeQuinne McKinesAFRS 515

Spring 2013Prof. Ashley Aaron

May 15, 2013Single Black Mothers: Stereotypes Vs. Reality

Stereotypes are based on truth but they do not represent the whole truth. There has been a

widely held and oversimplified image or idea of single black mothers within society. Often these

images are seen or reflected throughout the mainstream media. From Basketball Wives to Love

and Hip Hop, single black mothers are mostly portrayed in a negative light, which has an effect

on how they’re viewed in general. They’re often loud, boistrous, aggressive, cantankerous, and

disrespectful. Financially single black mothers are seen as irresponsible, their socio-economic

status is low, they have unstable relationships, not politically active, high-school dropout, and

they become a bad role model to their children. These are some of the many stereotypes that are

not the complete picture of the reality, which these single black mothers live in. The actuality of

many single black mothers is not taken into consideration because these stereotypes are

prominent and exclude circumstances that refute the stereotype. I intend to show the situations or

conditions that go ignored and are heavily impacted due to the realities these single black

mother’s encounter. These situations range from financial to economical, social to educational,

and the relationships these mothers hold with the opposite sex that may have an effect on their

parenting. I hope to try and present a better understanding to why most of these stereotypes have

been implanted in our mind to where we begin to believe they are true. I want to shed light on

how many single mothers are not poor, living in poverty, and intend to stay single. I specifically

want to touch on how people see black motherhood due to society and how black families view

the black mother as a whole. I am going to try to refute the stereotypic views that have

negatively affected single black motherhood by bringing in personal experiences of black women

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who have overcame these stigmatized views. This research project is going to be directed to the

empowerment of black women and how the outcome of slavery has also shaped the way society

views black mothering, whether it is recognized or not.

Financial stereotypes have been seen all throughout the popular media, as well as, major

companies or business throughout the United States. There have been many income disparities

that have been associated with being a single black mother, which has brought many negative

accusations towards these women. They are often looked upon as not having professional

occupations and this causes them to become reliant on social and welfare dependencies. Most of

the time, single black mothers are viewed as dependent or needy and have no sense of

investment acumen or general business knowledge. Many of these women who are portrayed

throughout the mainstream media are living paycheck to paycheck and they do not make enough

money to have the option of potentially saving their money. These many presumptions about the

financial state of single black mothers have been embedded over time, due to historical events.

“Feminists posit that white women have historically been conceptualized as mothers and black

women have been portrayed as workers” (Moller 2002: 467). With this being said, the reality of

most single black mothers is the total opposite of the image that has been expected of them based

off opinions that lack certainty. Generally speaking, there has been some truth behind the

typically higher male income loss and the ability for single mothers not to be able to compensate

by working, as well as, taking on the childcare responsibilities. The income growth amongst

single black mothers has increased over time because of parenting alone. “In nearly 44% of black

families with children, women are the primary breadwinners. These female breadwinners

account for 32% of aggregate black family income” (Conrad 2008). Many black women are able

to get jobs before their estranged counterpart due to the fact that they are women. There have

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been a lot of single black mothers awarded with more professional opportunities, which has

allowed them to receive more money in supporting their families. The growing percentage of

black female owned businesses has also increased and has allowed many mothers to have the

opportunity to work for them selves. “Black women are starting businesses at three to five times

the rate of all businesses, and entrepreneurship among black women has surged by 67% since

2002” (Rust 2013). The dwindling welfare opportunities has motivated most single black

mothers into getting a job after welfare to prevent them from staying below the poverty line. The

Welfare Reform was created to prevent families from living in poverty and helping them to

achieve self-sufficiency. Not only has this reform done nothing but keep most single black

mothers in poverty but it also has become harder for many women to even get on welfare. “The

U.S. welfare state has two tiers. Individuals with sufficient work history and wages qualify for

relatively generous, federally funded, top-tier social insurance programs such as social security

and Medicare. Individuals without consistent work history are relegated to the bottom tier, where

they must prove destitution to qualify for meager amounts of assistance from locally

administered and highly stigmatized programs” (Moller 2002: 465-466). Single black mothers

welfare opportunities have diminished due to the fact that white women have become more

prevalent amongst the single parenting. White women are offered more money and access to

welfare due to white privilege, as well as the encouragement to maintain domesticity. Black

single mothers are often denied both the opportunity and support to maintain economic stability.

Not only does this loss encourage them to get a job but it also refutes the notion that all black

single mothers depend on welfare.

To get a better understanding of how these socially constructed views of being a single

black motherhood does not apply to all women, I conducted an interview with a 52-year-old

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woman named Yolanda Smith, who has been a single black mother for over 17 years. She was

raised in Hunter’s Point, San Francisco California and has two kids. She graduated high school

and has had no consistent form of higher education.

I never pictured myself as ever becoming a “baby mama”. I always wanted to live the

fairytale life and get married, have kids, and live happily ever after. I was eight months

pregnant with my first child on my wedding day. My fiancé was seven years younger

than me but I knew he was the one I wanted to spend my life with. Soon after I had my

son, I got pregnant with my second child. I always wanted to have two kids, a boy and a

girl, who had the same father. I never really thought about divorce once I was married,

but soon after my daughter was born, I found out that my husband had another baby on

the way. I knew then that I had to do everything in my power to make sure my kids had

everything they needed and I did not want them to have to grow up not being able to get

the things they wanted. I began working full time, which allowed me to have health care

to cover my children and I. The harder I worked, the more opportunities I was presented.

I continued to get promotions, which eventually led to the managerial position I hold

today. I was able to afford daycare and I lived in a three-bedroom house for 15 years.

During the time where my children spent half the week with their father and then the

remainder of the week with me, I took the time to explain to them that no matter what as

parents; their father and I were always going to be friends. I did not hate my ex-husband

for cheating on me but I did resent him for breaking up our family. Throughout the years

I dated, but that did not take away from the time I would spend with my kids. I waited

until my kids were old enough to understand that their mother was no longer single, I

found love again. I decided to wait for my kids to reach an age where I could explain to

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them why I was moving on and marrying again. All I wanted was for them to accept the

man I loved and not look at him as a replacement of their father. At times it was hard but

soon enough they came around and I finally came to the realization that I could be happy,

even with having a man that was not the biological father of my kids.

As Yolanda discussed her journey through single motherhood, she touched on a lot of ideas that

most single black mothers supposedly undergo. The financial truth to her story was that even in

being a single parent she was able to provide for her children without the assistance of the

government, her children’s father, or any other outside source of income besides her own. She

also was presented with higher paying positions that allowed her to become financially stable.

The perception of single black mothers within a social construct has been a way for

society to categorize black women for centuries. The loud, angry, or overly aggressive black

single mother has been displayed throughout movies, television shows, and even music videos.

These women either lack knowledge, overall awareness, and sophistication in general. They go

against the grain of what women’s traditional gender roles are believed to be. Often times these

mothers cannot keep a man or have trouble with promiscuity because they have too many men.

They start to loose there self in trying to maintain a stable relationship, which causes them to

become overweight, out of shape, and lazy. They become too busy with trying to sustain outside

relationships and it causes them to lack capability in properly raising their children.

This idea that all black single mothers will have baby daddy drama or an unhealthy

relationship with their children’s father is also overly dramatized in the media. In the movie Baby

Boy, written, produced and directed by John Singleton, one of the main characters Yvette, played

by Taraji P. Henson, epitomizes almost every socially constructed stereotype about black single

mothers. She is loud, obnoxious, and angry throughout the whole movie and is constantly

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making up or breaking up with her son’s father. This movie displayed how black mothers are

viewed in society and has a negative effect on how these women are perceived today. It also

shows how black people view the single black mother as well. The notion that single black

mothers are loud and angry may be true, but the reality is that many are not.

It has been extremely difficult for single black mothers to break through the mold that

society has built for them. On the road to higher education, many of these women have many

barriers they have to get through in order to achieve success. There has been little to no research

to track the educational achievement that many black single mothers have attained. “Even though

the total number of African American women in graduate and professional schools is still

relatively small, there is still an upward trend” (Bush 2004). This concept of single black

mothers not wanting to continue or further their education is based off little to no research done

on African American women in general. For that reason, consequently the assumptions that have

been made about the ignorance or lack of knowledge that has been bestowed upon these mothers,

cannot be refuted, but can be defendable.

Single black mothers have been recognized as having trouble with either keeping a man

or regarded as “loose”. This is mainly seen in music videos or predominately black television

shows. The women that are seen in shows such as Love and Hip Hop or Basketball Wives are

known for having children but as well as dating a lot of men at the same time. In a lot of music

videos, there are many black women who wear little to nothing at all and are dancing on men

who are fully clothed. This not only shows these women in a negative light but it does not show

the lived realities that these women encounter in trying to pursue stable relationships. “The

often-cited figure of 42% of black women never marrying includes all black women 18 and

older. Raising the age in an analysis eliminates age groups that are not expected to be married

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and gives a more accurate estimate of true marriage rates” (Rust 2013). These marriage statistics

prove that many black women are in the pursuit of marriage, regardless of what many other

statistics show. The unstable relationships that many single black mothers supposedly have and

the idea that they cannot keep a man, is not the case in most situations. Many of these women

believe in marriage and hope to provide the type of stability needed to raise their family even if

they’re capable of doing it on their own.

Striving toward marriage, these mothers have taken time out to work on themselves and

their overall appearance. In interviewing women around the East Bay, I have greatly noticed a

desire to become more physically fit, not only to rebuild their self-esteem but also to live a

healthier life. One mother of two stated:

I do not plan on being one of those mothers who blame their child for the way they look.

I am doing something about my body now, so I will not be unhappy with it later. I enjoy

working out because it gives me a lot more energy and it allows me to make time to do

something that is going to benefit me as well as my children. They like when their

mommy can get up and run around the park with them, especially my son because he is

into football. He never knew his mom could throw as good as him. I want to be an

influential role model towards my kids by leading by example in living a healthy life.

Another mother of one stated:

I pull my motivation from being able to wake up every morning and look my daughter in

the eyes. When I look at her, I know she is the only person that loves me unconditionally

regardless of what I have done. This pushes me to become healthier and stronger, so I can

show her that becoming a single mother is not as bad as society makes it out to be.

Physically, I want to be in the best shape so I can do all the activities she wants to do. I

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also want to look better than I did before I had my daughter. I want to be a hot mom and I

want people to say, “I cannot believe you had a baby!”

In talking to these mothers, the social validity behind the concept of single black mothers being

overweight and out of shape has not been definite. These women have taken the time to better

themselves in order to feel confident with the body that they are working towards redeveloping.

It also proves that single black mothers are not too tired or apathetic to properly raise their

children. They are taking time out to better themselves in order to spend more time with their

kids.

Within the media, a lot of times single mothers spend long hours away from their

children while other family members take the initiative in taking on the childrearing. This has

also been a misconception towards parenting because the black family structure is not considered

normal in comparison to societal views upon the “nuclear” family that is deemed traditional.

“The organization of many African American households and families still reflects the extended

family background. It is important to mention this because many researchers and policymakers

studying Black families look only at individual households and therefore miss the “web of

kinship” and patterns of cooperation that tie these households together” (Sudarkasa 1996: 24).

Single black mothers often have more than one adult figure that is not the parent but has an

influence on their child’s development and in raising their child. Historically many black

families lived within a 1-mile radius or built their houses next to each other in order to maintain

their extended family structure. The idea that the nuclear family is the only type of family that

will be able to coexist and function normally is presumption cannot be assured. The extended

family structure has allowed the single black mother to raise her child in a way it will not lack

the vulnerability of survival.

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During the course of researching this topic, I found a dearth of research that highlighted

the positive results of single black motherhood. The bulk of the extant research, especially

academic research actually reinforced the stereotypes. Many examples included:

The black mother-son relationships and how they are unique in comparison to mothering of

white-son relationships. It also looks at what makes black mother-son relationships unique by

pressing three apparent issues: (1) 50% of all black households with children under age 18 are

headed by black women, (2) Black women are held responsible in some academic literature and

in the popular press for black male’s maladaptive characteristics and behaviors, and (3)

catastrophic conditions exist that cause some observers to view black men as an endangered

species.

Single mothers that have made an adaption and discovered an alternate family structure without a

father present. The grandmother in many cases becomes the second parent to their grandchild, so

they are now mothering their child and their children’s child. In grandmothers becoming the

second parent they try to pull rank of disciplining their grandchild and ignoring their daughters

authority. Black grandmothers tend to interfere and correct the behavior of their grandchildren,

rather than white grandmothers. The black household is extended and many grandmothers felt

they were picking up where the absent father left off. Single black mothers tend to give more

authority to their boyfriend, because she feels that she has deprived her child or children of a

father figure. This tends to privilege the romantic relationship over the other relationship and the

mother tends to lose the support of the grandmother.

The different welfare policies and how they affect female headship in families. The aim within

the study was to look at the impacts that female headship had on the welfare policies as well as

the impacts welfare had on female headship. The welfare reform creates changes within the

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decision making of women, their intentions on marriage, and whether or not they will want more

children. It also, focuses on job opportunities and the minimum wage that most women, after

welfare, are subjected to.

The relationship between employment and the well being of single-black mothers in poverty has

also been at the forefront of many studies. These women juggle the impact of low-income strain

and family role demands that become stressors to their well being. The study focused on single

mother who worked and had young children with insignificant economic resources. The author

looked at two questions: Do mothers who prefer employment indicate (1) less role strain and (2)

better emotional well being than their counterparts who prefer to stay at home? The study

resulted in mothers with a better education, preferred employment rather than mothers who

preferred to stay at home. Women who preferred to work had a better sense of well being and

women who preferred to stay at home were at risk for depression.

The growing demographic of single female-headed households over the past twenty-thirty years.

They continue by stating financial stressors are the most obvious source of emotional distress for

single mothers. Low-income mothers are at a greater risk for anxiety, depression, and health

problems. They also discuss the major reasons for these stressors, such as poverty, money

problems, parenting, living conditions, and the intimate relationships single mothers encounter.

The Moynihan study has been used countless times where they discuss the high number of single

female-headed households in black communities. He stated that the black family structure was

matriarchal, which would be associated with the social and black familial ills. Other researchers

attempted to incorporate demographic, economic, and the sex ratio from men to women, which

could be an explanation for the black single female-headed households. The study sought out to

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be a further analysis as to the disadvantage encountered by single female-headed households, due

to high black male unemployment and the low ratio of black men.

The prevalence of single female-headed households and how it has rapidly increased over the

years. It is important to view these households as normative, due to the fact that they make up

most of the households in urban environments. The author also discusses how age has come into

terms of the single female-headed households. Many single mothers are becoming younger and

younger, which raises the idea that this is something that is going to continue to happen.

The prison boom and how it affected poor African American lives and family structure. It also

looks at the state of the ghetto after the Moynihan report was released. At the time when the

report was released, the ghetto was decaying and the prison population increased rapidly as a

result. Mass incarceration in the late 1990s, was the product of policy and the economy. The

sentencing for criminals became severe and the war on drugs was a way of crime control. Crime

increased and the black family structure began to have a negative correlation to the mass

imprisonment. The intended audience for this journal has to be the individuals who believe that

mass incarceration had a cynical effect on the black family structure.

The effects of mothers moving from welfare to employment and how it will interrupt the daily

lives of their children’s development. Maternal employment affects children in low-income

families because of the hours women have to take on, which keeps them away from their child.

The employment of the mother contributes to the child outcomes because child rearing is now

lost. The mother has to consider how her job will affect her child’s mindset and maturation from

her not being there.

A lot of my sources also talked about low-income single black mothers that were either

on welfare or on the verge of welfare dependency. These are all examples of how the many

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stereotypes of single black mothers have been dramatized within academic research. They all

looked at the emotional well being of the woman and whether or not her single parenting had a

negative correlation on the way her children were being raised. According to Aurora Jackson,

“having no education beyond high school and a preschool-aged boy predicted the least favorable

outcomes of the mothers well-being, including role-strain, increased depressive

sympotomatology, and regardless of educational attainment, decreased overall life satisfaction.

This strengthens the notion that single black mothers who lack knowledge and awareness are

prevalent in today’s society. To support the idea that many single black mothers do not lack

intelligence and have the ability to become self-sufficient, I interviewed a 65-year-old woman

named Carmen Jackson.

I was on my third child at the age of 18. I lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by myself in a

small house. I moved to California with three children, ages 2, 1, and 5 months old. I

started off at UC Berkeley in a typing pool making minimum wage. Over the next 40

years, I managed to send three kids to college, graduate from college with a Master’s

degree, and I currently have two grandchildren in college. My oldest grandson has

already graduated from college. I never have been on welfare or government assistance

and I have managed to retire early. Neither of my children or ten grandchildren has been

incarcerated or on welfare or any other “stereotypical results” that society has continued

to influence.

My only resource was to rely on personal and anecdotal accounts where the stereotype was not

reinforced. I’ve conducted extensive interviews with single black mothers who did not fit the

stereotypes. In doing so, I have concluded that African Americans in general, do not control the

media or what is presented to us academically. There has yet to be any studies or resources that

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have looked at the positive aspects of being a single black mother. There also has been a lack of

resources that talk about the increase of African American women within the growth of their

education, financial, and economic status. This is one of the major problems in trying to refute

the stereotypes that have been embedded historically due to the fact that the media, slavery, and

other societal aspects has had on our views upon these black single mothers. When looking for

positive or encouraging studies that have been conducted on women, it was non-existent. This

evokes the opportunity to enact change within the research that has been limited on progressive

single black motherhood. Drawing from my interviews with women who did not assimilate into

the stereotypical views that most research has touched on, I have realized that many African

American historical events or achievements have been carried out orally. Most, if not all of the

success stories of single black mothers have not been written in history or discussed throughout

black communities. The research focus on the struggle that many single black mothers have

encountered in trying to become self-sufficient. This leaves out all the women that have

overcame the trials and tribulations that come with being a single parent. Overall I have learned

that being a single black mother is not something a black woman wishes to become or even

wishes to remain. These women are motivated by their children to overcome the many disparities

and stigmatizations that are correlated with being a single black mother. I hope that my research

has mad people realize that there has been a huge gap between the positive reinforcement of

being a single mother. Societal views are only going to change with more awareness of

beneficial information that backs the escalating rate of single black motherhood. The absence of

this research has to be addressed and there needs to be more studies that shed light on actual

lived realities, rather than the portrayals that have been seen throughout the media or history.

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