Single Black Mother: Queer Reflections on Marriage and Racial Justice [Paperback]

The life conditions endured by unmarried Black mothers in the United States reflects the deep-seated ills of anti-Black racism, systemic poverty, disenfranchisement, and state violence that adversely impact the daily lives of most Black Americans. Disturbingly, single Black mothers are, more often than not, held blameworthy for their diminished life circumstances owing to their choice to parent outside of marital unions.Single Black Motherdisrupts this negative view of single Black motherhood by making the case that these mothers are not problems to be solved. Rather, the institution of marriage is the problem.Unmarried Black mothers in the United States face a precarious existence. Their precarity reflects the deep-seated ills of anti-Black racism, systemic poverty, disenfranchisement, and state violence that adversely impact the daily lives of most Black Americans. Scholarly and popular discourses across racial boundaries reflect the prevalence of negative judgements of those Americans. These discourses illuminate the vulnerabilities particular to unmarried Black mothers, who are, more often than not, held blameworthy for their diminished life conditions. Single Black mothers, however, are not parasitic problems in need of eradication. The institution of marriage is the problem.Contemporary debates on marriage are often situated within feminist philosophy, queer philosophy, and critical race theory, but sustained engagement within Africana philosophy is virtually nonexistent.Single Black Motherfills this gap and corrects the impoverished narrative of single Black motherhood by engaging the following questions: How has the American marital institution served to confine political, moral, and economic capital amongst elites to the detriment of unmarried Black mothers and their families? How should considerations of anti-Black racism inform our deliberations concerning the role, if any, the state should undertake regarding intimate relationships? How