Darling Daughter; See the World Again: Examining Transgenerational Practices in African American Mother-Daughter Relationships

Abstract

Mother-daughter relationships are a crucial means of transferring family customs, knowledge, and traditions in African American communities. Daughters receiving these customs and traditions often form their identity and a sense of autonomy based on what they observe and learn from their mothers. However, African American women live at the intersections of overlapping systems of oppression and privilege; privileged to experience motherhood but oppressed by the racial and social injustices within our society. This very experience translates into a trauma response expressed through resiliency to protect and advance the future generation of African American women. In this study, I interviewed African American mothers to gain an understanding of how cultural traditions and beliefs have been created to sustain future generations. In addition to the interviews, I reviewed scholarly sources and testimonials from anthropologists, African American mothers and adult daughters, sociologists, psychologists, and folklorists. After gathering my data through interviews and observations I planned the foundation for a proposed workshop to help future mothers navigate through motherhood and understand the power of influence through culture. These workshops will focus on the intersectionality of being African American and female is a testimony of what shapes her and why she engages in specific traditions. In addition, participants will discover that the African American female’s values and beliefs tell a story, which will be captured through story prompts in a workshop full of women of color reared in an urban community. Addressing this issue from the lens of cultural sustainability helps to employ versatile appropriate resolutions in which the individuals will be assisted versus addressing one aspect of the issue, like the psychological or physiological. This perspective provides a perspective of depth and cultural breadth to the issue being addressed. Additionally, personal values can be addressed since the goal is to sustain generations. Through this discipline, connectedness to oneself is discovered through the voice of the individual rather than strictly relying on data. It should be noted that intersectionality serves as the lens through which African American women perceive and engage with the world. Their viewpoints as African American women, women of color, often living in marginalized communities, and especially as mothers, have often been shaped by different traditions and rituals that intersect within their day-to-day lives. These include foodways, shared traditions, rituals, belief systems, and the methods through which these traditions are passed down through generations. For instance, in Harris-Perry’s Sister Citizen, she references an African American feminist scholar by the name of bell hooks who emphasizes African American women of lower economic status desire recognition and placement amongst society and their social group (Harris-Perry 1973 41). hooks believe this leads to these women detaching from issues connected to poverty and focusing more on racial identity. The feminists have observed that African American women prefer to be recognized as Black due to the assumption that race is the primary identity unrecognized and celebrated. As a result, women develop a racial bias and lean more toward traditions and customs that celebrate their race and neglect how this affects their economic status and gender (Harris-Perry 1973 41).