wishes for sons

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker (1983)

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens is a collection of essays, speeches, and letters written by renowned novelist and poet Alice Walker. Walker combines personal narrative with sharp social commentary, speaking out as a Black woman, feminist, writer, and mother on subjects ranging from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to the Anti-Nuclear Movement of the 1980s.

Walker coined the term “womanist” to describe this collection of prose. Preceding the essays of In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Walker defines the theory of womanism as:

a black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mother to female children and also a woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender (Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983).

Walker’s theory of womanism can be mapped directly onto Lucille Clifton’s work. Clifton’s writing, like Walker’s, privileges the perspectives of Black women, adamant in her pursuit of authentic truth telling. Clifton’s sense of authority and agency as a writer, as well as her use of personal and social commentary, mark her work as distinctly womanist, creating a more nuanced understanding of equality for herself and her readers.

Man Child: A Black Lesbian Feminist’s Response by Audre Lorde (1984)

Author and activist Audre Lorde grapples with the question of how to raise her son in a feminist way within the confines of a deeply sexist society in the essay “Man Child: A Black Lesbian Feminist’s Response.” Lorde contends that she cannot speak about feminist parenting in a theoretical or impersonal way because, at the time of writing this essay, her son, Jonathan, was quickly approaching puberty, transitioning from boy to man. Lorde speaks candidly about the binary opposition that exists between her son’s private and public spheres: at home, authority is female, but in the world, it is distinctly white and male.

Clifton’s “wishes for sons” articulates a similar point to that of Lorde’s Man Child. Clifton uses hyperbole (see: Literary Devices) to expose just how much sex and gender impact how a person moves through the world. Both Lorde and Clifton do not wish pain onto their sons, but they do hope to foster a deep understanding within them, instilling self-confidence and empathy into the young boys that will otherwise be harmed by the patriarchy.

Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991)

Scholar and writer Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in her seminal essay “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” Crenshaw defines intersectionality as the complex, cumulative way in which discrimination disadvantages individuals with multiple minority identities. Her essay expounds feminist and critical race theories, examining how sexism, racism, and classism combine, overlap, and intersect.

Crenshaw’s primary example of intersectional politics centers the Black woman. Clifton utilizes the pillars of intersectional politics to expose the hidden violence women experience on a regular basis, mapping the gendered experience of menstruation and menopause onto the male body in an attempt to foster mutual understanding across intersections. Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins” is an excellent resource for readers to gain a more complete understanding of Clifton’s identity as a woman of color, author, and individual (see: Authorial Context).

Racism, African American Women, and Their Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Review of Historical and Contemporary Evidence and Implications for Health Equity by Cynthia Prather et al (2018)

The legacy of medical experimentation and discriminatory healthcare practices continue to negatively influence the present-day health outcomes of African American women. The essay “Racism, African American Women, and Their Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Review of Historical and Contemporary Evidence and Implications for Health Equity,” published by the National Library of Medicine, exposes the historical underpinnings of sexism and racism that exist within the medical field, interrogating the disparities in the care of various racial groups and gender identities.

“wishes for sons” culminates into a discussion on healthcare, specifically that of gynecology. Historically, enslaved Black women were the victims of gynecological research, and by reading this essay, readers will gain a more nuanced understanding of the historical allusion Clifton makes at the end of the poem.