Black Mothering, Serious Mental Illness, and Caregiving

Several movements in American history have paved the way for social critiques that privilege the experiences and accounts of Black identities as intersectional, critical, and instrumental to social justice (Collins, 1986; Crenshaw, 1991; Crenshaw et al., 2015). "Blackgirl" and "Blackgirlwoman: narratives coined by Boylorn (2016) and Hill (2019) have emerged to describe the uniquely intertwined identities that bleed so thoroughly into one another that the words, like the identities, become inseparable and describe a distinct state of being. The author's Black mother caregiver narrative draws attention to the historical ambivalence toward the prevalence of health disparities in the Black community and its impact on her family, and the mistreatment of Black people, particularly those living with mental illness (Eichelberger et al., 2016; Patterson, 2009) as intersectionality. Serious mental illness (SMI) has been shown to amplify the mortality of Black people due to the combination of race-based health disparities that contribute to early death in this population and increased mortality in people living with SMI. This exploratory singular case study uses an autoethnographic approach to describe the researcher's resistance to society's stereotypes of Black mothers, their progeny, and mental illness in the Black community. It is a critique of the societal systems and historical institutions that were not designed to value or support the Black mother caregiver experience. It blends researcher and participant into one-mirroring the blended identities of Boylornʻs "Blackgirl" and Hillʻs "Blackgirlwoman." Three questions guide this account and deepen the exploration of the Black mother caregiver experience: 1. What societal structures influence how I construct my identity as a Black mother caregiver for a young adult living with serious mental illness (SMI)? 2. How do I perceive social barriers that impact my caregiving identity and effectiveness? 3. In what ways do I negotiate my roles in society that align with the experiences of other Black women? This account applies the exploratory singular case study methodology using an autoethnographic approach to understanding a Black mother caregiver's experiences in society, framed with caregiver identity, the critical theories, and intersectionality to understand the societal bridges and barriers to Black mother caregiver success, empowerment, and thriving. The conceptual framework views and seeks out the Black mother caregiver in the literature through the themes of (1) critical theory, (2) caregiver identity, and (3) intersectionality to inform this study. Keywords: Black mother, Black caregiver, caregiver, caregiving, mental illness, critical disability theory, critical race theory, intersectionality, racism, health disparities, mental health disparities