5 thoughts on “Freddy Espitia’s Presentation

  • Regenia Miller

    Your presentation is so informative. Thank you for sharing!

  • Anna Marston

    Your presentation was excellent! I really liked that you included the history of the “Welfare Queen” as this is so important considering the stigmatization of Black mothers. I learned a lot about this in my Gender & Work course. Amazing job, Freddy!

  • Freddy:
    Good job. Your style is clean and readable. I am interested in what you think about or learned about, an equally powerful trope of Black women: the Mammy. She is large, asexual, and cares about nursing and caring for white children more than she cares for her own. There is a prominent media figure who is sometimes referred to as a “mammy” stereotype because her fans are overwhelmingly white women.

    • Freddy Espitia

      Thank you for your feedback! Yes, I found the Mammy trope very interesting and it was often mentioned in the readings I did in preparation for my essay. I felt that it was an apt way of rationalizing the ability for black women to take care of white children with the theory that they were incapable of maternal understanding. I am interested as to your perspective of its influence in the modern day justice system. I saw a possible connection with the bad mother stereotype, that black women are somehow both strict and also incapable of raising their own children. It is my understanding that the Mammy trope denigrates a black woman’s legitimacy to raise her own children, and dehumanizes black women as mere helpers of white families. It also suggests a missing characteristic that makes white women superior in their role as a mother, but exactly what that is was unclear to me.

  • Avery Wasson

    I really loved the discussion of stigmatization and the strong role race plays. I had never heard of the “Victorian Lady” so I found that an interesting analysis as well.

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