Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Women’s History Month often focuses on white women. Dedicated to commemorating and encouraging the study and celebration of the vital role of women in American history, the month seldom highlights the accomplishments of Black women. How is that so, when this nation was built upon the labor of Black women? In fact, it was and remains Black women’s caregiving that enables white women’s excellence. This year, we have to talk about it.
Our caregiving history in the U.S. began with slavery. Black women were forced to care for slaveholders’ households and families. We cooked, cleaned, worked the fields and, sometimes, endured rape and raised the children born from those assaults. The economic foundation of the U.S. rested on the abuse and exploitation of Black and Indigenous people’s unpaid labor and caregiving.
After Emancipation, Black women largely found employment as domestic laborers. We were still caregiving: cleaning, raising others’ children and working others’ land. This time, we were caregiving for not-enough pay. Domestic workers had few rights and were left out of census employment counts. This invisible workforce was excluded from legislation improving working conditions. White employers could abuse and withhold domestic workers’ wages with no consequences. They could build generational wealth, knowing that their families were being cared for by un(der)paid Black domestic workers, who were vital to the economic growth of the U.S.
In the civil rights era, Black women were vilified for their ongoing care work. In 1965, a report was issued by Daniel Moynihan of the Department of Labor, “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” Moynihan decontextualized Black women’s experiences, ignoring our history as caregivers and deemed us…
Read the full article here
