Much of the motherhood activism that is lifted up in our politics portrays women in a certain way: as uniquely moral, even apolitical, actors who were compelled to take action because they fear for their children’s safety. It’s a myth that's highly racially coded and obscures the realities of motherhood. The truth? Motherhood is political. Moms are political. And when we start acknowledging that and centering the most marginalized moms in our activism — their needs and experiences — we end up building better policies for all of us.
Much of the motherhood activism that is lifted up in our politics portrays women in a certain way: as uniquely moral, even apolitical, actors who were compelled to take action because they fear for their children’s safety. It’s a myth that's highly racially coded and obscures the realities of motherhood. The truth? Motherhood is political. Moms are political. And when we start acknowledging that and centering the most marginalized moms in our activism — their needs and experiences — we end up building better policies for all of us.
This season's cover art features a photograph by Jonathan Wilkins.
White Picket Fence is supported by Planned Parenthood. For more information or to book an in-person or virtual appointment, visit plannedparenthood.org or call 1-800-230-PLAN.
News Reporter:
The fear mongering over critical race theory has reached library bookshelves. And late last year, a Texas Republican lawmaker compiled a list of 850 books he thought would quote, “make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish because of race or sex.”
Julie:
By now, this story is frustratingly familiar.
News Reporter:
A parent complained about a book by Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi's called “Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism And You.”
Julie:
As the story often goes: Conservative white parents hear about a book in their kid’s school that deals with race or gender or sexuality… and they want it removed. Not just from the shelves. But from the entire curriculum. All in the name of protecting their kids. In recent weeks, it’s felt like these stories have been spiraling out of control…But this time, another parents group pushed back.
News Reporter:
The Round Rock Black Parents Association organized groups to come speak in support of literature that is not whitewashed. They made a petition to keep the book in the curriculum. More than 3,600 people signed on.
Ashley Walker:
We thought it was completely and wholeheartedly unfair. And so it was actually a teacher in the district who started the petition to make sure that we kept the book in the district. And we just organized around that teacher's petition. We spoke out at school board meetings. We made our voices heard, and the book wasn't banned in the end.
Julie:
This group, the Round Rock Black Parents Association, decided they needed to step in and defend their kids’ access to an anti-racist education… and they won.
Ashley Walker:
Unfortunately, the person tried to have the book banned after reading, I think one sentence in the book. He didn't like it and he felt uncomfortable with it. And so he wanted to have it banned for an entire school system.
Julie:
Sure, this was one book in one school system in Texas. But, it’s also a glimpse into what’s possible when we employ a different kind of moms’ activism. And what we can accomplish when we invert who is centered in discussions around “parental rights.”
I’m Julie Kohler, and this is White Picket Fence. This season we’re exploring mothers as a political force.
Last week, we looked at how moms can be a force for progressive change. And we examined the roles that racism and classism have played in those movements – and prevented better outcomes. White progressive moms are taking steps to avoid those same mistakes.
But there’s so much we could have achieved if we’d always platformed the most marginalized voices. And so for this episode, we’re flipping the script. We’re highlighting organizations that center Black mothers, and other mothers of color. It’s a strategy that has led to safer schools, better maternal health policies, and increased support for workers and families. And it could provide us with a model for how we tap into our motherhood – for the better.
So, let’s go back to Round Rock, Texas. In this Austin suburb, a group of Black and brown moms decided that enough was enough. And refused to let some white parents exert their rights at the expense of others.
Ashley Walker:
Centering of white voices in all of these movements and then the words, it's parents' choice and parents' rights being tossed around, says that I'm, I'm not considered a parent.
Julie:
Ashley Walker is the chief communications officer for Round Rock Black Parents Association.
Ashley Walker:
I spent 29 hours in labor with my, my now seven year old. I feed her, I clothe her, you know, I take care of her. I provide for her needs and her wants. And yet I'm not considered in the equation when we're talking about parental rights. People who look like me are not considered either.
Julie:
Since Moms for Liberty burst onto the scene, Republican politicians have been tripping over themselves to one-up one another in their support for so-called parental rights.
Representative Kevin McCarthy:
Mr. Speaker I rise today in support of HR5: The Parents Bill of Rights.
Julie:
The Parents’ Bill of Rights Act was the first piece of legislation that Representative Kevin McCarthy unveiled as speaker – in front of a crowd of mostly white parents.
Representative Kevin McCarthy:
This is empowering the parents. This is the parents’ bill of rights. It’s knocking down currently what this Biden administration that wants Washington to control all. That wants a DOJ to go after parents when they go to school board meetings. No, this is opening up schools to the parents.
Julie:
A couple of weeks ago, it passed the GOP controlled House. The bill mimics what's already been enacted in states like Florida and Texas. Among other things, it requires schools to provide parents with a list of books at the school library, and make curricula publicly available. It supposedly gives all parents more of a say in their kids’ education, but in reality... it caters to the demands of a small but vocal extremist minority.
At the same time, the Parents Rights Act is totally silent when it comes to the very real concerns that Black and brown parents have for their children. They also want to make sure their kids get a good education. Are safe at school. But for them, the stakes are very different.
In fact, Round Rock Black Parents Association was founded in the aftermath of a violent racist incident.
Ashley Walker:
In 2015, a Black student was body slammed by police onto the floor.
News Reporter:
JC Hughes is suspended today due to that fight. But it’s what happened afterwards that has him speaking out. The cop grabs him by the throat and takes him to the floor.
Ashley Walker:
The video went viral. And because of that, Black parents got together and they were able to fight against this injustice.
Julie:
Since then, Round Rock Black Parents Association has been fighting for a different kind of parental rights agenda. One that’s focused on ensuring safety for all kids, by prioritizing the needs of Black and brown kids. And highlighting how—and by whom—violence is actually perpetrated. One of Round Rock Black Parents Association’s top priorities is reducing police presence in public schools.
Ashley Walker:
You know, we understand the thought processes behind it, which is to eliminate mass shootings. However, the data shows the likelihood of one increase when there's a police officer on campus. And so we don't want a police officer on every campus because that's gonna be detrimental to Black kids more than anybody else.
Julie:
Another priority is ensuring public schools get the funding they need. Which means stopping charter schools from siphoning away resources.
Ashley Walker:
The numbers show that the people who attend public school the most are Black and brown in this area. If we fund them properly, then Black and brown kids and white kids and every other kid can learn what, what needs to be learned in order to grow within our society and be productive members of society.
Julie:
Ashley, and other Round Rock parents, started locally. But over time, their organization grew, and so did their legislative targets. Recently, they’ve taken their advocacy to the state Capitol, to make sure their state legislators hear their voices. But it’s an uphill battle.
Ashley Walker:
Honestly, I think that when it comes to politics, politicians are more willing to hear a mom out than anything. However, then we have to have the conversation. But you're a Black mom, so are they really listening to you because you are a Black mom? Right. But you know, we, we work in the, the same vein as the Black mothers that have come before us, Black women who have come before us in, in the struggle for achieving freedom for Black people.
Julie:
Round Rock Black Parents Association isn’t alone. The same guiding principle – centering the Black experience – is being used to advance a wide range of policies.
Danielle Atkinson:
We work on what we call our mama's agenda. That includes paid leave, childcare, affordable childcare, maternal justice, basic needs, and higher wages.
Julie:
That’s Danielle Atkinson. She’s the founding director of a Michigan-based organization called Mothering Justice.
Back in the mid-2000s, Danielle had just moved to Michigan with her husband. They had recently finished up some work on a political campaign. Danielle had a lot of energy that she wanted to use to create positive change. But she noticed that many progressive organizations didn’t always live up to their rhetoric.
Danielle Atkinson:
You know, when, when we would be talking about issues specifically, economic justice issues, uh, the talk would be about let's make sure that we have a white woman, you know, to talk about this issue, to be a validator. And then I became pregnant in 2007, and you know, I realized that there wasn't room for my story and my experience in the work that I did.
Julie:
Danielle realized she needed a space where she could talk with other Black moms about their experiences with pregnancy and raising kids. A place to put her political expertise to good use—and deliver policies that supported Black mothers.
Danielle Atkinson:
I looked around to see if there was anybody organizing moms and couldn't find a group that was really organizing mothers of color unapologetically. And so that was the impetus for Mothering Justice, a place where mothers of color, specifically Black women in particular, could share their truth, be unapologetic, more than unapologetic, could be joyful about the life they were living and the motherhood that they experienced, and use that expertise to change our political system.
Julie:
Mothering Justice is led entirely by Black women. They’re working to change the narrative about who mothers are—and what they need.
Danielle Atkinson:
I think we all have come to understand that women are the primary breadwinners and caregivers, right? That's a phenomenon we're all growing to really understand. But that has always been the case for women of color. They have always had to make the time and space for making the money to provide for their family, but also provide for their emotional and physical needs, uh, in the caregiving realm.
Julie:
So Mothering Justice prioritizes policies that are grounded in that reality.
Danielle Atkinson:
We wanna be as inclusive as possible, but we also think it's important not to erase our experiences. And my experience is one of Black mothering. And I didn't feel like it had a space in the political climate that I was entering into when I started Mothering Justice. It was Black moms that were being marginalized, and it was Black moms who were not being included, and who were asked to, to step aside, uh, and not share their truth. So that, that's why we are here.
Julie:
That kind of approach is vital. Because as we saw in episode 4…
Danielle Atkinson:
Our policies, are riddled with good people pushing things that aren't rooted in people's experiences and what will change their lives. So we don't wanna do that. Every opportunity we have to bring our membership into a democratic process, we do.
Julie:
Mothering Justice is not an advocacy organization that works just on behalf of people. By design, they’re not top down. Instead, they work in community and organize. They build a base of Black moms and give them the tools they need to drive their agenda. Danielle and her colleagues work with community members to identify the problems they’re facing. And empower them to develop solutions.
This grounding in community forces different questions to be asked..
Danielle Atkinson:
So when we're talking about childcare, is it affordable? Is it accessible? Is it culturally competent? Maternal justice? Am I going to be respected and, even believed when I say I'm in pain?
Julie:
It leads to policies that are actually useful. And transforms peoples’ sense of their own agency.
Danielle Atkinson:
This is all underpinned by believing that you deserve a place in the system, a voice, a seat at the table. And so that's probably our biggest work is having mothers of color understand that this system was not made for them, but they deserve to have a system that represents them completely.
Julie:
Danielle and her team at Mothering Justice also have been working to change the system: They’re training Black moms and other mothers of color to become leaders—community leaders. Political leaders. It’s enabled Mothering Justice to have a pretty significant impact.
Since the organization started, they helped raise the minimum wage in the state — twice.
They’ve built demand for paid family leave — so much so that the issue is poised to pass the Michigan state legislature this year.
Danielle Atkinson:
You know, people would say, well, you're, you're just focused on such a small segment of the population. Uh, and we would say that if we get this group of people enthusiastic about these issues, able to step into their own agency, not only is that an invitation for others, we're talking about the real problem of inequality, and that's where we need to focus on. If we, if we can eliminate inequality, then you solve for everyone's problems, but that needs to be addressed first, and it can't ever be glossed over.
Julie:
One of the foundational principles of Mothering Justice’s work is that a more equal world is better for all of us. It’s a hard concept for a lot of people to wrap their minds around. We’ve seen over and over again how much of our politics is driven by zero sum thinking – the idea that the pie is finite. And if someone else is getting a piece, that means my child or my family isn’t.
But in reality … when we band together, we can create abundance.
For example, when Michigan raised the minimum wage, it directly benefited about 1.4 percent of hourly workers in the state. These workers are generally young, and more often women than men. It’s a small number of people. But by helping these workers afford the goods and services they need – the law indirectly helped the businesses that sell those goods and provide those services, too.
All of this demonstrates why the work that organizations like Mothering Justice and Round Rock Black Parents Association do is so important. Why we need organizations that, as Danielle said, unapologetically organize Black moms and other moms of color. And why we also need organizations that are working to cultivate a sense of shared fate across race, class, and all dimensions of difference.
More on that… after the break.
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Julie:
For Monifa Bandele, the notion of solidarity was at the center of her upbringing, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Monifa Bandele:
The environment that basically said that your fate is tied to the fate of your neighbor. Your fate is tied to the fate of people who live far away from you on planet Earth. You know? And so we kind of really grew up understanding that our fates were connected, and that if there's injustice happening or someone is facing systemic challenges, that it's, it's your responsibility to intervene, of course, but also that it, it impacts you in very real ways, even if you can't see it in the moment.
Julie:
Monifa also got a firsthand view of the political power of mothers.
Monifa Bandele:
My mother specifically was a part of a citywide rent strike when I was a kid. What I witnessed, you know, just as a 8, 9, 10 year old girl was actually watching mothers meet in our apartment building, devising a plan to improve the living conditions, in their building. Being met with threats. And a lot of intimidation white men would show up in, in trench coats and look physically aggressive and, and yell at them. And so, being able to see the power of moms at such a young age, and they won, they won the, uh, demands from those buildings. So not just for our building, but for dozens of properties all over the boroughs, was profound. And it, it stayed with me to this day.
Julie:
As an adult, Monifa has channeled these lessons, these values, into her own activism. She’s now the Chief Strategy Officer for an organization called MomsRising.
It’s a multi-racial group of more than a million moms fighting to build a more family-friendly America. MomsRising members can work together effectively — as Black moms, Brown moms, white moms, queer moms, immigrant moms — because they’ve all signed onto this core idea: If you find solutions to problems affecting the most vulnerable moms — you help everyone.
MomsRising is unapologetic — both for their intersectional focus, and for the need to bring mothers of all backgrounds into this fight.
Monifa Bandele:
The largest voting demographic in the United States are white women. And we have to get them together. We have to get white women and white moms engaged in educating themselves, in organizing one another. You know, people say, why do you work in this multiracial organization? You get tired of working with white women. Well, yes, of course. Someone who has to constantly work on deconstructing their, uh, white supremacy is exhausting. And it's not a job for everyone, right? But I also feel like we cannot leave white women to their own devices.
Julie:
With these tactics – this form of political education – they really are moving the needle.
They’ve created Maternal Mortality Review Committees, they’ve helped pass the Pump Act, which provides protections for nursing mothers in the workplace; the Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act, which requires employers to provide accommodations for workers around childbirth, pregnancy, and other related medical needs; and the Triumph Act, which focuses on maternal mental health.
And now, they’re working to pass something even bigger: The “Momnibus.”
That’s what MomsRising and their allies call the packet of legislation they’re supporting in Washington right now. It was first introduced in Congress a few years ago by members of the Black Maternal Health Caucus. Here’s Representative Lauren Underwood explaining more about the Momnibus on PBS’s Chicago Tonight:
Representative Lauren Underwood:
In order to end our nation's maternal mortality crisis, we have to have a comprehensive approach and that's what the Momnibus is. It allows us to invest in things like growing and diversifying our perinatal workforce, meaning that we can have more midwives, more nurse midwives, more lactation consultants, more doulas so that every mom can have the support that she needs during pregnancy, labor and delivery and the full year long postpartum period. We also are investing in things like maternal mental health and substance use treatment. We are investing in social determinants of health like housing and transportation and nutrition assistance. We're also investing in addressing this COVID-19 pandemic and its unique impacts on this population of moms. And finally addressing the impacts of extreme heat and air pollution, which we know these climate change related impacts are very harmful to expectant moms, postpartum moms and their infants.
Julie:
These all might seem like very different issues – but that’s kind of the point. It centers people in the policy making – in this case, Black moms – and looks at all the factors that affect their health.
By making this a priority, MomsRising is avoiding the pitfalls of progressive organizing of the past. They and their allies in Congress are being very explicit in naming who they built this legislation around – race and class are not an afterthought.
Monifa Bandele:
It's called the Black Maternal Health Momnibus right? Because we understand that if we center the moms who are having the worst crisis of mental health, it will actually impact everyone who's giving birth in the entire country.
Julie:
Right now, the Momnibus is still in committees and it might take a while to get a vote. But it’s a huge step to have policies that address Black mom’s needs right from the get-go.
So many of the groups we’ve talked about this season – on the left and the right – have benefitted from the image of moms being pure. Being apolitical. But MomsRising is challenging that status quo. By being overtly political.
Monifa Bandele:
We've kind of created this, you know, American fairytale of the mom who's just like, the men are dealing with the politics, and I'm just here and I know what is gonna make my kid feel good and do well and be healthy. And that's just not the case. That's just not the case. Women are full multi-dimensional human beings. Moms are full multi-dimensional human beings. We have political agendas. I have a political agenda. My mom, my grandmothers, they've all had political agendas.
Julie:
It’s a relief to hear Monifa acknowledge that motherhood is political, that moms are political. The idea that what happens in our homes and what happens on the Senate floor are divorced from each other …. Is just wrong.
The activism we highlighted today provides a more accurate view of mothers – not grounded in some imagined ideal, but in the reality of our lives. One that’s not purely selfless. Because our needs – as moms, as people – matter, too. In many ways, it feels like the path forward.
But I’m gonna be honest – I still feel a bit conflicted.
I’ll be the first to admit that my own identity as a mother…matters to my politics. I desperately want my son – for all kids – to be safe. To have access to excellent care and education. I want the work that we moms do to be valued and supported. I want the kinds of public investments in care that would make mothering easier.
Being a mother has also brought an urgency to my politics. climate change, the attacks on democracy, women’s rights, racial justice—all of these issues will have an even greater impact on my son’s generation. Getting involved and fighting for what I believe in feels like part of the job of mothering.
But at the same time, as meaningful as it is to be a mom, I think it’s important to acknowledge that I was politically active long before I had my son.
And that being a mom is just one aspect of who I am.
I want a voice, a political voice, that’s not contingent on that one aspect of my identity. I want that for all women.
Can we build a kind of politics that values women – those of us who are moms, and those of us who are not – as the full multidimensional beings that we are? Can we acknowledge the importance of the identity without reducing us to it…or inadvertently co-signing on the right’s tired family ideal?
In our final episode, we’ll turn to some of our guests from the entire season to examine the advantages and risks of motherhood activism. And attempt to create a new political playbook.
White Picket Fence is a Wonder Media Network production. Our producers are Maddy Foley and Taylor Williamson with production support from Abbey Delk. Our editor is Lindsey Kratochwill. Executive Producer is Jenny Kaplan. Original music by Sean Petell.
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