(BALTIMORE – May 11, 2025) – In light of all that this current administration has done to demean and degrade Black people in America, I want to take a moment and thank all of the Black women on this Mother’s Day! Nobody tells y’all that you are the mother of humanity. Hell naw! Especially in America. This society doesn’t revere you like it should, even though you give life to us all.
Maybe I’ve read too many history books because the image of a Black woman breastfeeding white plantation owners’ babies sticks in my mind like ‘dirty rice.’ The brutal reality is that white men raped our great, great grandmothers on treacherous lands riddled with hollow screams in the night, and nobody came to save her. As a result, the beautiful race of Black people of which I am a part comes in many hues. We speak many languages. We think differently. We move differently. Like Kendrick sings, it’s in our DNA. Both struggle and overcome.
Nonetheless, the Black woman survived this treachery, birthed and raised children of her own, and today is the most entrepreneurial demographic in America on a pathway to economic freedom. Despite the multi-dimensional attacks on the Black woman in the workplace, including a barrage of microaggressions by ignorant white women out to prove something, she perseveres to the top – smashing glass ceilings – earning doctorates and slaying any beast that comes in her way. “Still I rise.”
This Black woman of today is not only a survivor, but she is best equipped to deal with the chicanery and hypocrisy of America because no one is more American than she. Her blood, sweat, and tears soak the earth of North America. But so too does her spirit embolden us to become everything we should become. I’m talking about the spirit of a Harriet Tubman who was responsible for freeing nearly a thousand enslaved Africans on the shores of North America. She was a freedom fighter of the caliber of a Navy Seal who never lost a passenger, and she owned properties in New York state.
Despite all of the Black people we see today grinning, taking the cheese, and turning their backs on their own (gatekeepers), the spirit of Harriet Tubman lives in countless Black women today who refuse to be ignored and who are taking their 750 and 800 credit scores and opening lines of credit to finance their own entrepreneurial efforts.
Be not mistaken. It is not new to her. Annie Turnbo Malone, the mentor behind Madam C. J. Walker, pioneered the way. She created her own hair balm for Black women and uplifted the image of beauty in this racially skewed land of so-called democracy. And she made over a million dollars doing it. She even opened Poro Colleges of Cosmetology to expand the craft of cosmetology in the Black community.
The Black woman is also a physician, like Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who graduated from the New England Female Medical College with a medical degree in 1864. She is a fighter pilot, like Shawna Rochelle Kimbrell. In 1999, she became the first Black woman in the US Air Force to do so. She is a college president. She is a Supreme Court Justice. And she runs for President, like Shirley Chisholm.
Black woman, on this Mother’s Day – we salute you all, including the mothers to be. You are our world, our first teacher, our healers, our breath of life, and we so adore you for the queen you are. You are the glue that holds us together. You’re our source – one anointed by Almighty God Himself … or Herself! Smile! Happy Mother’s Day! Stay strong!
