Dear White Women Podcast

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Dear White Women

I never thought, until recently, about how White the mom blogging world was.

I know. I know.

If you immediately felt shame or anger, give me a moment to explain, because it’s not about that being wrong or right. It’s an observation about the state of the world.

There are a lot of mom blogs out there, and of those I’ve seen, the majority center their stories through the voice of a White mom. And the population of the United States is just about 62% non-Hispanic White, so fine, if a majority of the viewpoint is from the White perspective “just to be representative,” I’ll go with it.

But it strikes me that mom blogs are typically written by more than 62% White writers; magazines in the ObGyn waiting room feature White moms on the cover; advertisements for moms and kids usually feature white families (admittedly nowadays with the occasional mixed race couple). From what I see, the remaining 38% of my exposure does not center motherhood around a Hispanic parenting experience, or an Asian parenting experience.

And centering Black motherhood as a storyline?

I don’t think it’s been done. Not until recently.

Over the last four years, Shanicia Boswell identified a need to normalize Black motherhood in this country—to talk about it in a way that represented and embraced being a mom, and also was honest about the experience of being Black in this country. Her wildly successful Black Moms Blog now has over 439k followers on Instagram.

There’s clearly a thirst for this voice. The experience of being a Black person in this country is not the same as being White, no matter how much it’s uncomfortable admitting it. Unfortunately, there is a whole couple of centuries of slavery in this country, and institutions built up after that ended, to continue those differences. It is how it is right now. And it’s so critical that we see that.

Stop for just a moment, if you’ll play along, and think about the vision of a Black mom. What are the stereotypes that pop to mind, about personality traits, lifestyle, parenting style? What have you heard or seen in the media?

Now take another hot second and think about your vision of a White mom.  It’s different than what you’d pictured about a Black mom—not just in skin color—isn’t it?

So, as a former Scottsdale Moms Blog contributor and editor myself, being able to talk with Shanicia over at our new Dear White Women podcast was incredibly eye opening. We talk single parenting, mom guilt, interracial relationships and dating, co-parenting. So much good stuff. Because we as moms all want what’s best for ourselves and for our kids.

We hope you’ll take a listen.

And if you like this conversation, please consider subscribing to the podcast so you don’t miss future conversations that are relevant to you.

https://www.dearwhitewomen.com/episodes/shanicia-boswell