Black Sons to Mothers: Memory, Mothering, and Masculinity “in the Wake”

Abstract

In this study, two Black sons engage with their mothers’ memories as educational life practice. Using endarkened feminist methodology and BlackCrit feminist theory, we explore the impact of Black mothers’ lives and educational journeys on the constructions of Black sons’ masculinities. We examine Black mother/son relationships within the context of slavery's afterlife, particularly how these relationships map knowledges of structural suffering and insurgent possibilities. Drawing upon the transformative power of Black motherwit, this scholarship emphasizes the need for revolutionary scripts in either cultivating a Black liberatory masculinity or abandoning masculinity projects altogether toward Black freedom aims.