Single Black Mother Queer Reflections on Marriage and Racial Justice

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 Mother fills 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 can we affirm the matrifocal dyad as a productive site of racial justice?

Annika Maaza Simpson here offers an original and novel contribution to the canon of Africana philosophy, and the philosophical literature on marriage. Arguing that non-normative families, specifically families headed by unmarried Black women, should be regarded as generative sites of moral worthiness and liberation practices. Single Black Mother deploys a queer Black feminist lens to illuminate the multiple vectors of harm, inclusive of material, moral, and political harms that serve to undermine the freedom of unmarried Black mothers existing outside of the state marital regime.

Anika Maaza Simpson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Howard University. She is also Founding Director of Black Queer Everything, an initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation that invests in the next generation of scholars, activists, and artists working toward Black liberation. Deeply committed to supporting and advancing racial justice, gender justice, and LGBTQ+ equity through advocacy and education, Dr. Simpson's work is an expression of her firm commitment to making a difference in the lives of her students and institutions that are devoted to communities of color.