'The Mamas' and the cult of mom groups
Today on \u201cPost Reports,\u201d Helena Andrews-Dyer on her new book, \u201cThe Mamas\u201d and what it takes to be an authentic Black mother in a mostly White mom group.
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Washington Post culture writer Helena Andrews-Dyer talks about her latest book \u201cThe Mamas: What I Learned About Kids, Class and Race from Moms Not Like Me.\u201d
The book is a memoir of Andrews-Dyer\u2019s personal experience of what it was like to be the only Black woman in her neighborhood\u2019s mom group. She wasn\u2019t even sure if she wanted to join at first.
\u201cI think for me as a Black mother, immediately just instantly the image that comes up in your head is White women,\u201d Andrews-Dyer said. \u201cIt's like strollers taking over the local cafe, going to baby yoga, baby music class in their yoga pants. It's just like all of these images and stereotypes pop into your head and you immediately think, as a Black woman and woman of color, \u2018Oh, that's not for me.\u2019\u201d
But in some ways, Andrews-Dyer writes, \u201cI needed this space as much as they did.\u201d Andrews-Dyer is a middle-class, Black professional woman living in a rapidly gentrified neighborhood in Washington, D.C., with two little girls and a husband.
But she \u201chad not seen a story about motherhood that looked like me. \u2026 And so I had to tell it.\u201d
\u201cThe Mamas\u201d was released by Crown Publishing this week.