Current debates about women "going it alone" erase the experiences of generations of black single mothers.
By Alyxaundria Sanford
It turns out that white working-class women are better off being single mothers, according to the conclusion of a recent Slate piece on how current cultural and economic changes “have brought white working-class women … to the point where going it alone can be the wiser choice.”
It opens with the story of Lily from Kansas City, Missouri. She’s four months pregnant, but recently broke up with her boyfriend Carl. “I can support myself,” Lily explains. “I always have. I can support myself and our kid. I just can’t support myself, the kid, and him.”
Due to the unfortunate circumstances faced by working-class men, we’re told, Carl either can’t get a job, keep a job or get a promotion. Therefore, Lily is better off without him.
“A generation ago her decision would have seemed narrow, misguided, and difficult to understand,” authors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone explain. “But now we have to conclude that it makes a lot of sense. Although it defies logic, socioeconomic, cultural, and economic changes have brought white working-class women like Lily to the point where going it alone can be the wiser choice.”
“Christopher Columbus syndrome” is a term I became familiar with after Spike Lee used it back in February while talking about gentrification. It refers to the notion of people (commonly, white) suddenly learning about trends, foods or places that already existed — and trumpeting their “discovery.”
When Lee invokes this syndrome in terms of gentrification in Brooklyn, New York, he says, “You can’t discover this! We been here. You just can’t come and bogart.”
This sudden “discovery” of single motherhood is yet another example. The idea that this decision now makes sense is bewildering in 2014 — because it’s not new. It’s certainly not new for black women and other women of color. We been here.
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