like a game of peekaboo ICU welcome to
the world of women where we see your
glass ceiling we see the 69 cents to his
every dollar we see your struggle you
are safe here you matter that made me
feel like saying back to the pages hi my
name is sagacious Langston here my six
babies here therefore daddies I’m black
I’m impoverished and I want to sign up
where can I be a feminist and it seemed
to me that the page was said back while
clutching their pearls you want to be a
feminist you want to be one of us and it
seems to me that I heard other voices
from the pages saying we take single
mothers over here but not like you
yeah we’re breeders over here but we
don’t breed like you yes we are black
feminists but not black like you
peekaboo
I don’t see you and one fell swoop I was
erased page after page article after
article I search for stories like mine
and they did not exist
but what feminism had taught me was to
ask the question it taught me to see the
problem and so I saw that my not being
there was a major problem in a question
that I asked was can mothers like me
make a difference can marginalize
mothers change society speculative
fiction answered with the resounding yes
magical realism fantasy science fiction
they all push the boundaries of the
everyday they all make us rethink
reality
they make the impossible possible let me
give you three examples just recently
Netflix aired a new series in it the
superhero wears the hoodie he’s black
he’s bulletproof he wasn’t born
impenetrable but life made him that way
not so long ago I was at a movie theater
where I saw a movie where the government
was facial problems and could not solve
problems that was beyond its
comprehension understanding the skill
level and so it recruited supervillains
together the villains and the government
took down a formidable foe one of my
favorite series had an episode in which
a young girl trains as an assassin
because of her disobedience she’s
blinded temporarily once she regains her
sight back
a friend appear once her dead that pier
would have succeeded against that once
blinded girl except for the once blinded
girl lured her into the dark and it was
in a dark with that pier fail each of
these stories are presenting to us
counter-narratives new ways of seeing
for example sometimes the places where
we struggle the most sometimes the
challenges we face in life help to
create the most extraordinary people let
me say it a different way sometimes we
are exceptional not in spite of what
we’ve gone through but because of what
we’ve gone through sometimes the answers
we seek I found in the populations we
most dismissed and the outlaws the
criminals the rebels and sometimes
training in the dark proves to be more
useful than education
in the light we value these things in
speculative fiction we root for them
we entertain their possibilities yet in
reality we’re very conservative about
our application of these very same
values take for instance our a treatment
and approach to black mothers in
particular stigmatize black mothers the
stories that we tell are constraining we
bind them and the things that we say we
say they are the reason for poverty we
say they pass on bad genes we say the
people have the most children are the
ones least capable of taking care of
them we say they are neglectful I say
what if we took our cue from speculative
fiction what if we saw these women not
as problems to be solved but as problem
solvers what if we saw these women not
as people to be changed but change
agents what if we could see that these
women also exist as PhD candidates what
if we can see that these women exists as
property owners what if we could see
that these women exist as college
professors what if we could see that
these women exist as artists what if we
could see that these women exist as
nurse practitioners what if we could see
knew that in order to answer these
questions and to explore these real
possibilities it was going to be
important for me to carve out a new name
a new identity it was important for
these women to have a clean slate and so
I looked for a term that was able to
carry the weight of their past struggles
acknowledge the weight of their
blackness and acknowledge and honor
their accomplishments I took an old term
and repurposed it infamous mothers in
his literal sense the word infamous
means known for a bad quality or deed
the one
that I explore literature I definitely
known for bad qualities and Dean deeds
these are the women who are tea mothers
baby mothers women who were once sex
workers women who were in prison when we
were mental illness and he’s very same
women and these very same stories
somehow not only managed to kick a habit
or overcome a struggle they managed to
change society in the same way that the
term bad means good in black culture the
phrase infamous takes on new meaning
infamous mothers take on a new meaning
they transition from being bad moms into
under the umbrella term infamous mothers
we see all type of mothers with all
types of gifts and talents extraordinary
women let me introduce you to three
types the first type we see is the woman
who was born to change the game she was
a woman who whether deemed by the gods
or the ancestors was born to challenge
the status quo she was born with the
mission the second mother is a woman who
we will see as a emotion wielder in a
world where logic prevails and rules
she’s able to take her emotions her fear
her anxiety her anger and channel it
into something extraordinary to start a
movement to change power dynamics the
third model is something that’s
consistent throughout all of these women
were talking about and that is the
shapeshifter this woman was born to
change things namely herself every cell
in her body defies limitations defies
limitations that are placed on her by
other people defies even the limitations
my question to you is if these women
these extraordinary women exist and
they’re around us every day what are we
doing to see them as assets few days ago
I was having a conversation with a man
and he reminded me that human resources
are the very best resources and if this
is true what are we doing to tap into
the power of these these mothers what
are we doing to see them as a vital
resources in our businesses at our
hospitals at our institutions our
schools as a mother of six who’s also a
PhD candidate as a business owner who
works with these women on a regular
basis I could tell you from firsthand
as someone who worked with them on a
regular basis I can also tell you that
we talk about these things we talk about
different ways that we can engage and
make a difference we talk about
different ways that we can leverage the
power that we have and contribute to
society what I want to offer you today
is five ways that you as supporters can
also make a difference on a day to day
basis people are knocking on your doors
they’re knocking on your businesses the
doors of your businesses the doors of
your schools and as business owners as
entrepreneurs as people who make a
difference in the world you are always
thinking of new ways to bring about the
best and the brightest talent you have
already thought about ways to court
people overseas talent you’ve thought
about ways to bring athletes to
universities you thought about ways to
give first-generation students
opportunities the question that I’m
asking you today is in what ways have
you thought about bringing these mothers
and courting their them as top talent
with that said the first point that I
want you to think about is how in what
ways can you anticipate their arrival
and what things can you do to remove the
barriers so that they can’t arrive books
bullets and babies a juggle all three
that was the first line of my personal
statement when I applied to graduate
school now I can guarantee you that
those committees that read my personal
statement had no idea what they were
getting into but what a line like that
I’m sure they could imagine the
possibilities and in my effort to be
transparent with them they did
everything that they could to understand
my story and to accommodate my reality
so that I can succeed and bring to them
the best qualities I had to offer the
African American Studies department the
English department university housing
officer childcare Family Resources all
pulled together to make room for this
black woman from the southside of
Chicago who had the raw talent to make a
difference and they had the ability to
cultivate that talent so the second
point that I want to say to you is make
me infamous mother’s a new vision our
upcoming book often when we think about
marginalized mothers we think about
social pathogens in this book we imagine
these moms as heroes as game changers
meet Chris Charles he is the person
behind everything visual for infamous
mothers he’s our photographer our
graphic designer
imagine or depict vulnerability and
nakedness they associated with sex they
associated with shame but at Christmas
photography he associates these things
with class and dignity meet the doyen
group often when people are thinking
about how to cultivate business owners
they want to know the plan but when
they’re thinking about how to cultivate
female entrepreneurs they want to figure
out how to support the entrepreneur they
want to figure out how to remove the
barriers my point to you is I’ve just
given you three examples of ways in
which people have always done things and
I’ve introduced you to three models in
which people have done things
differently they found ways to innovate
not offer alternatives so that brings me
to the third point and that point is
some of the best people I’ve encountered
some of the most dedicated people I’ve
encountered in social workers but if I
let you in on a little secret
growing up black on the southside of
Chicago I can tell you this social
workers are two black mothers where
police officers are two black men when
they show up people are afraid they’re
afraid that their families are going to
be torn away they’re afraid people are
going to go to jail they’re afraid shows
are gonna go to foster care they’re
afraid that one person’s perception of
their reality can change everything
so the fourth point that I want to make
is shape shift shape shift often if you
are in a position where you can make a
difference in a family or a household
test your own boundaries test your own
bias and figure out how you could take
on a different form can you change from
being a person who precedes your
position as a crisis manager to becoming
a social investor and how would that
more often than not I hear about black
mothers especially stigmatize moms being
baby makers if we could change our idea
of them it’s a legacy makers how would
that change the way we engage them if we
knew they threw these women’s bodies
were coming our next generation of
attorneys doctors lawyers business
owners how would we change the way we
engage these women how will we change
the way we cultivate our relationships
with these women would they be so easy
to dismiss if we knew that they were the
next generation that they were producing
next generations of surgeons teachers
reframe and reframe often thank you you