Moms for liberty and the dispositifs of white motherhood: toward a Black whiteness study of maternal educational biopolitics

Abstract

This article argues that white motherhood, embodied by Moms for Liberty, enforces a white supremacist educational and political order that materially harms students of color, especially Black students. Moms for Liberty did not emerge ex nihilo. It is part of a longer history of defining American education from the vantage of white motherhood. This argument is introduced by a methodological note that extends Foucault’s discussion of dispositifs to current critiques of critical whiteness studies that redefine this field of inquiry as Black whiteness studies Genealogical integrations of securitizing dispositifs like white motherhood are qualitative ways of doing Black whiteness studies that make possible future critical inquiries. Toward this possibility this article concludes by discussing the material dangers Black mothers experience and how Black mothering counters vitriolic claims of harm espoused by extremist organizations like Moms for Liberty.