Every Mother is a queen

Black people can identify with 2Pac’s “Dear Mama.” In the Black community, mothers are sacred, the backbone, the glue that holds the family together. They are our royalty, our Queens, whether they rule in a single-parent or two-parent home.

No matter their struggles or failures, we love our Queen mothers unconditionally. Even mothers without motherly instincts are beloved by the children to whom they gave the gift of life.

Black Americans have a proverb about mothers: “You can talk ‘bout me, but you bet’ not talk ‘bout my mama.” In our community, throwing shade on our mamas is an invitation to a beat down.

Like 2Pac, we revere our mothers, love them, and will do anything for them.

In honor of Mother’s Day, The Louisiana Weekly extends our heartfelt gratitude to mothers everywhere and to our mothers, some of whose spirits we carry with us.

We celebrate Black mothers’ victories and congratulate them on rearing their children, whether their children are successful or not, incarcerated or not, or whether they are young adults and still home with mama.

We also want to recognize the Black mothers who are both mothers and fathers to their children. Being a single mother and head of the household can be overwhelming, yet we have many examples of mothers who raised successful children alone.

America’s Black mothers are born into a country that devalues them, pays them less than their white counterparts, suppresses their ability to actualize their full potential, and often denies them equal access to affordable loans.

Indeed, some Black women have overcome many obstacles and accumulated wealth and fame, and some have done it while rearing children. We celebrate and recognize their accomplishments.

Still, far too many Black mothers lack equal pay, equal education, career advancement and access to housing loans, car loans and small business loans. For Black mothers who earn the minimum wage, the American Dream is a pipe dream. How many minimum-wage earners can afford to own credit cards?

The Louisiana Weekly also recognizes and celebrates mothers who work hard but receive government benefits because the minimum wage is not a living wage. At $7.50 per hour, the federal minimum wage keeps Americans in poverty. As such, we celebrate Black mothers who make a way out of no way, who sacrifice both their time and money, and sometimes meals, so their children can get what they need to survive.

On this Mother’s Day 2021, The Louisiana Weekly sends out much love and hope for much strength to the Mothers of the Movement whose murdered children are martyrs. We feel your pain, and your children have not died in vain. They are the progenitors of an overdue reckoning.

For you and all the Black mothers globally, The Louisiana Weekly’s gift to you is a reminder of who you are, as defined by our great poet mother, Maya Angelou. Happy Mother’s Day!

This article originally published in the May 10, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.