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More Than Words: Parents Respond To Ferguson On Instagram

Flickr user:  Neil Cooler

Flickr user: Neil Cooler

More Than Words: Parents Respond To Ferguson On Instagram

Words: mater mea

Parents sharing photos of their children on social media had added weight in the wake of the grand jury's no indictment decision.

This past Tuesday morning was like waking up from a recurring nightmare. Unfortunately, the new day didn't bring better news: On Monday evening St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced that a grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed black unarmed 18-year-old Mike Brown.

The news sparked protests (more than 170, according to CNN) in streets and social media newsfeeds all over the country. On Instagram, parents reflected on what the Brown family's loss and the grand jury's ultimate decision meant for their children through photos of their children, many of whom are too young to understand the complicated emotions their parents are addressing. Below, a sampling of some of those posts:


She's learning how to count, I'm praying she gets to grow up. #blacklivesmatter

A photo posted by Jamilah Lemieux (@jamilahlemieux) on

 

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If my weather app isn't lying to me, it's going to start feeling like Spring in NYC soon. So it feels right that our newest #mmtakeover mom is Tiffany Hinton (@the.wild.mama.project)—the Hawai'i-based mom's account always feels like a breath of fresh air.⁣ ⁣ Tomorrow Tiffany will share how "it’s possible to live a life aligned to your values. Everything I do is through that lens and it’s lent itself to a very interesting lifestyle: Hawai’i, blended family, business owner, work-from-home mom, Wild Mama, morning meditation with the kids, 2:30 a.m. wake up for me...crazy!"⁣ ⁣ Say Aloha to Tiffany! And if you have any questions for her, ask them here in the comments.⁣ ⁣ Image description: Mom posing with her three children.
The first time I heard about Nipsey Hussle, I was in the backseat of a Lyft. My driver was so hype because his music career was moving in the right direction after years of almosts and not quites. He wanted to be New York's Nipsey, he told me: owning his music, giving back to his community, being a beacon to Black folks, an example of being your own man.⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ When I heard the news of his murder yesterday, I was shocked—I looked at the time to make sure it wasn't a tasteless April Fool's joke—and immediately thought of his girlfriend, Lauren London, and his two children. Then journalist @daviddtss put the loss in a broader context for me in his article, "We lost more than a rapper today: Nipsey Hussle, killed at 33":⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ "I often think about a study released in 2017 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It stated that it takes 20 years of nothing going wrong in a person’s life — perfect education, great college decisions, financial perfection — to escape poverty. Two decades. I think about what that means for people like Nipsey Hussle — black people who had to claw to survive and, no matter how much money he makes or how much good he does, the bullets still find him. He escaped poverty, but he couldn’t escape America."⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ Link in bio for full piece.
Fill in the blank: My breastfeeding experience was ___________________________.⁣ ⁣ Lactation educator counselor, birth and postpartum #doula, and childbirth educator @anjelicamalone explains what the first two weeks of breastfeeding look like, and how you can prepare for the most common issues. Click the link in the bio to read.⁣ ⁣ Image description: Poet Staceyann Chin breastfeeding her daughter Zuri.⁣ ⁣ Photo credit: @quazimottoonwx
It takes a village to raise a child—and to support the parents out there doing all the raising. @MuffyMendoza of Brown Mamas rounds up a list of support groups for Black moms, featuring yours truly among other amazing resources. (Link in bio.)⁣ ⁣ Where do you go online or in real life for support? Share in the comments.

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mater mea is a website that tells the stories of women at the intersection of motherhood and career. Launched in 2012, the site offers a more realistic depiction of black women in the many spaces they occupy: as mothers, daughters, employees and employers, lovers, and friends.  Learn more...