Black Grandmother Power: The Wisdom of Caregiving and Leadership

• In Event: Contemplating Contextualized Decolonization, Intersectionality, and Antiracism: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (U.S.); Hopi Country; and New Zealand Perspectives

Abstract

Black grandmothers serve as leaders and primary caregivers for many Black grandchildren (Smith-Ruiz, 2008) in the United States, especially in urban communities. Some researchers describe grandmother caregivers as a growing, powerful, influential, and underestimated force (Crewe, 2006). In this session paper, I discuss from insider experience and through conversations of other Black grandmothers’ lived experiences of the ways in which centering Black Grandmother wisdom disrupts status quo Eurocentric ideologies (Jean, 1991) that are dismissive of Black women leadership. Further I explore Black grandmother spirituality (Dantley, 2003), faith (Gibson, 2014), African heritage and cultural support (Hudson-Weems, 1993, 2020; Gibbs, 1991), resilience, (Hayslip, 2012), and social and personal strength, (Hill, 1999), as pathways of empowerment as Black Grandmothers reach deeply within to be wisdom caretakers for their grandchildren and warriors against the triple plight of racism, classism, and sexism they confront (Hudson-Weems, 1989).

Many Black grandmothers rear their grandchildren to provide cultural guidance, protection, and support (Burnette,
1997, 1999; Fuller-Thomson & Minkler, 2001; Goodman & Silverstein, 2002, 2006; Hunter & Taylor, 1998). In a multitude of ways, they have cared for grandchildren to preserve family, to prevent placement in foster care, and to avoid the juvenile justice system. African culture expects the mother, including other mothers and fictive kin, to be family-centered in their leadership roles being responsible for nurturing, sacrificing, and providing life-enhancing protection for the well-being and stability of the children (Asante, 1988). This African way of being and knowing is passed down to generations in the Africana home to combat Eurocentric miseducation (Woodson, 1933) and socialization away from ancestral history, knowledge, and tradition (Karenga, 1988; Steele, 1992).

I use critical qualitative study methods, specifically critical ethnography (Madison, 2006, 2018, 2020) to explore Black grandmother leadership styles and primary caregiver roles. Critical ethnographic methods are predicated not only on a desire to combat social inequities and injustice, but also to spark meaningful action within and among community members (e.g., Black grandmothers) who begin to recognize that their personal and collective sovereignty can break through barriers of systemic oppression (Carspecken, 1996; Denzin, 2001; Noblit, Flores, &
Murillo, 2004; Thomas, 1993). This ‘break through’ is especially important given the limited amount of literature exploring Black grandmothers’ leadership styles critical in shaping their grandchildren’s futures while navigating traumatic life crises. Black grandmother leadership (King &Ferguson, 2011) and caregiving (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler, 2001, 2005; Dolbin-MacNab, 2006) demonstrate love, service, and care (Greenleaf, 1977) for the social, emotional, physical, educational, and spiritual well-being of their grandchildren. These ‘demonstrations’ are
connected directly to Afrocentricity (Asante, 1988), a paradigm to reclaim African values: spirituality, communalism, and collectivism (Keto, 1990) as well as to center the African concept, Sankofa, a spiritual practice to reach back to the ancestral roots of the past and to move forward to achieve potential (Stewart, 1999). This process of ‘reclaiming’ is important to capture and document as Black Grandmother wisdom is linked to ancestral knowings that can provide important platforms for current and future leadership among and for Black youth.

Author

• Latosha M Rowley, Indiana University - IUPUI