Mass Incarcerations and its Effects on Black Motherhood
Mass incarcerations of black bodies began after the Jim Crow era and exploded during the War on Drugs — also dubbed as “the War on Black Women”. After racism became illegal, technically, America decided that they needed another racial caste system set in place immediately. This is when the mass incarceration of black bodies began.
Since the days of enslavement, black women were not allowed the right of motherhood nor the right to be a body — instead reduced to flesh. After enslavement came to an end and black women were finally allowed to mother, Daniel Patrick Moynihan published a report saying that black women were the very reason that black folk were stuck in the cycle of poverty. He calls black women an “obstacle” that black folk have to overcome to progress in America.
In present day, black motherhood still struggles to exist in the way that white motherhood does. White motherhood is a right that white women are given at birth while black motherhood is a privilege. This privilege is hindered by the mass incarceration of themselves and their family — dubbed as the New Jim Crow.
The Moynihan Report brought upon a more punitive drug policy that resulted in the prison population ballooning with folk of color. Currently, the United States accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s inhabitants, but about 25% of its incarcerated inhabitants. As of late, black folk are up to 6 times as likely to get incarcerated than their white counterparts.
How does this effect black motherhood?
Black women have been experiencing the “theft of body” — “a willful and violent severing of captive body from its motive will, its active desire” — since enslavement. This theme is still prevalent. Black women are finding it difficult to mother due to them and their families becoming territory of the United States in a “cultural and political maneuver” — the mass incarceration of black flesh.
As black men get incarcerated, black women are increasingly heading families. This single motherhood is a feat in itself, but in addition to this, black women deal with the stigmas that come with incarceration, the struggle to keep their private life out of the public, and keeping their kids and selves off the streets. Black women often do not take back their previously incarcerated significant others due to dishonor that comes with getting incarcerated. This acts as a modern-day “passing”. By rejecting the incarcerated, it allows their family not to feel the disgrace and social exclusion, similar to how “passing as white” helped lighter skin black folk in the Jim Crow era. This silence is how black mothers defend their family in a society where everyone is constantly out to get them. Often, black mothers also feel the need to protect themselves and their children from the possibility of their significant others bringing the violence of crime home with them. This is an example of sacrifice that is inherent in black motherhood — sacrifice of not being able to have a husband or be open with their private life.
Black motherhood is protecting their youth. In the era of mass incarceration, black mothers turns into a complex practice where they want to protect their family from gang activity and drugs with law enforcement, but also understanding that law enforcement isn’t there for black folk. It’s policing how their kids look (don’t walk with your hands in your pockets) and how they talk (show respect!), and struggling to come to terms that their kids can’t be kids because America doesn’t allow black kids childhood.
While incarcerated themselves, black mothers struggle to mother. This is due to black kids not usually being able to see their mother, due to the previously stated stigmas of incarceration. The punitive drug policy of the United States could treat drug-addled mothers and save countless families from incarceration, but we live in a world where the American criminal “justice” system isn’t for people of color. Black mothers often do not get parole or probation, unlike their white counterparts, which estranges them from their family further.
Mass incarceration of black folk turns black motherhood into an act of protection. Protection from stigmas, of private life, of self, for their kin.
