She Gets It From Her Momma: An Afro-Indigenous Resistance Legacy Reflection

One of the biggest tragedies of contemporary Afro and Indigenous descent people’s reality is this myth that lives in the white imagination – and by virtue, the collective imagination – that we are a passive people who are constantly new to resistance and uprising. I believe that this myth is upheld by the mideducation so many of us receive in the schooling system we are subjected to that is mediocre at best. This miseducation preserves white supremacy in teaching history full of white heroism and Black, Latinx and other ethnic groups deemed racially inferior as mere pawns who are supporting actors in this offensive comedy being played to the white imagination. Using birth and Afro Indigenous reproduction as the center of my analysis, I am constantly reminded in my birthwork that Black and Latinx people are not helpless victims of their unscrupulous white oppressors but instead are active agents that have fought for their self-determination since the first and subsequent attempts to be brought under control.

If I could describe my mother and the matriarchs in my family in one word, it would be resilient. Nothing about how I experienced my mother, godmother and grandmother is describable as passive. I tell my mother that I got my spirit of resistance and perseverance from her, that my defiant and rebellious nature comes from her. This is a intentional removal from the perception that immigrants are docile and voiceless instead of truly understanding that we are both quietly and openly resisting colonization while the imperialist state tries to silence us. In my studies of birthing justice and midwifery, I gradually came to understand that the narrative about midwifery’s supposed death and resurrection fed into the larger white savior complex. This complex as it applies to black midwives and reproduction tells a sanitized story of how white male physicians killed off the practice of granny midwives and then midwifery, mainly white midwifery, made a heroic comeback fighting for licensure and a presence in maternity care. It ignoresthe system of medical apartheid and obstetrical apartheid – a convergence of patriarchal medical heroics, racialized medical violence, economic exploitation, and cavalier disregard of black women’s well-being.Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirthcontextualized this previously unnamed discomfort I’ve had with modern midwifery – the discomfort with the forgetfulness of white midwives in regards to the ways they have benefited in the field of obstetrics and gynecology from the subjugation and violence wrought on black and racially diverse bodies.

This forgetfulness is infuriating because of its implications. It continues to portray black women as passive people who never take charge of their lives. This may be true of some members of this targeted oppressed group but be that as it may, the fact that Black people choose to give birth and control their reproduction is and always will be an act of resistance. We have gone from the use of black women as breeders for human labor during the enslavement to including an active genocide attempting to decimate our numbers. There are so many layers of control that we must resist against to avoid exploitation from the moment we are born. This is why Afro and Indigenous descendant birthworkers cannot compartmentalize their work to the delivery room. Most of us understand that the fight for self-determination only starts at birth. Our involvement in the birthing process of Black, Latinx, First Nation and other racially diverse individuals is a move to begin dismantling the harmful effects of white supremacy. I always include First Nation because our forgetfulness starts with the people who first inhabited the Americas. The indigenous midwives I have met along my journey always remind me that they too actively resist and are part of this legacy.

I have said often that midwifery is my form of direct action. The transformation that can occur at birth is profound enough for me to want to support and hold space for that process. I am aware of the ways the population control and eugenics theories affect the lives of Black and Latinx people. By consistently pushing the myth that there are too many people on the planet, the real message that there are too many nonwhite people on the planet gets lost in this slight hysteria. It allows us to shame women who have bountiful wombs. It gives room for the complete neglect of Black individuals and their well – being in healthcare because of biological racism – the notion that Black people feel less pain and that disease manifests differently in our bodies, to put it simply. For me, birth is at the nucleus of the various issues such as incarceration, gentrification, inadequate education systems, and poverty.

This is why knowing our history is important and why it has been suppressed. It has been intentionally kept from us that we did not simply go along with the enslavement of African people nor the violence wrought upon the First Nations throughout the Americas. Seeing babies birthed by women of color has shown me firsthand that resistance has always been parallel to oppression in that we as a people were not meant to survive on our own terms. What I have witnessed in my life is anything but acceptance of our conditions. I was blessed to be surrounded by fiercely loyal and loving people whose main way of resistance has been love and maintaining community at all costs. Mothers have been at the center of that maintenance, and by virtue, granny and ancestral midwives have held that space. This is why it has been difficult for me to approach my midwifery work with capitalist notions. The people who I truly want to offer my skills and knowledge often are in a position of being unable to access financial freedoms that middle class white people often do. As a birth justice activist, it is my duty to be intentional about my birthwork being available to people for whom it is a necessity and not just a luxury.

Some find it hard to hold the tension of race and birth. I believe all people regardless of socioeconomic status have a right to safe and respectful perinatal care but am also clear that white women are not experiencing obstetrical violence at the same rates as their black and indigenous counterparts. They have benefited from what my ancestral mothers had to suffer through. I don’t need an apology or anything, just accountability. I need for white midwifery to not play white saviors when it comes to the maternal and infant mortality rates but instead examine how their neglect and positions of privilege contribute to this crisis. Most of all, at this point, it is important for me to remind myself and others that we get so much of our spirit of resistance and resilience from our ancestors. We get it from our proverbial and actual mommas.