Critical Analysis Of The Fear Of Black Women

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In 2014, Dr. Wallace Best wrote a candid article for the Huffington Post discussing what he deemed as the irrational fear of black bodies. The context surrounding this critique stemmed from the surge of black men dying by white police officers. In the article, Dr. Best provided historical insight into this deeply rooted, unwarranted anxiety that white Americans have used as probable cause to commit violent acts against blacks, as well as systemic control over black men as a means of protection to maintain societal order. With this assertion, Dr. Best offered a critical analysis in understanding the fanatical need to preserve ownership over black movement due to this ubiquitous threat of black skin and the African American male. However, what …show more content…

From the earlier forms of fetishizing over Saartjie Baartman in Europe, the dehumanization of black women as “mammies,” to Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s controversial Moynihan Report in 1965, African and African American female identity has been under the direct possession of white people. White Americans have continued to define the black female’s position within society by creating her narrative based on inequitable economic and societal conditions as well as gender norms that have outlined what it means to be a “true” black woman. Her behavior and body has been examined [and understood] through her direct contrast to white women, her role in supporting the white race …show more content…

However, the Mocha Moms do in fact work; just not in the labor market. They perform domestic duties similar to the black women in the early 1900s, but their “work” is centered on caring for their families, which is a huge dissimilarity from black women of the past. Black women who entered the workforce as domestics had dual roles; they had to care for their employer’s children and home only to leave and perform the same type of duties for their own families. But Mocha Moms do not have to care for someone else’s children because they are able to devote majority of their time to their

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