We have to expose and expunge the European-centered value premises underlying Black family studies before we can make headway in describing and assessing these institutions.” -Dr. Niara Sudarkasa

In “The Strength of Our Mothers” by Dr. Niara Sudarkasa,  Dr. Sudarkasa sheds light on the contrasts between the Black family structure (which, through research, she determined to have similarities to the West African extended family organization), and the nuclear family arrangement of European tradition upheld by Western scholars paraded as the “ideal” and “most organized” family entity. The scholar, Africanist, educator, and anthropologist explains that European scholars one-sidedly championed the family model that mirrored their societies while classifying families that operated under a different design as “chaotic,” “abnormal,” and “crumbling.” She declares that families that function outside of Eurocentric models, such as the extended family model, should not be viewed as “unconventional” or “non-traditional” but as an entity of its own meaningful purpose that has contributed significantly to the survival of Black people in America.

Of primary significance to me is Dr. Sudarkasa’s urging of Black scholars to remind our communities (while also educating others) of the vital role that the “extended” family model frequently observed in Black households has and still continues to play in our survival and progress. She calls to us to continue organizing our community-wide family reunions and asks that Black Americans “take the lead in determining the value premises by and about” Black people rather than accepting the skewed determinations and viewpoints made by scholars, missionaries, and anthropologists who inadequately studied Black family patterns in comparative family studies, to begin with.

Acknowledging that the book could have been titled “The Strength of Our Families” as the sentiments echoed throughout the text reflect on those strengths, she is also led by personal experiences and the experiences of others to conclude that our successes could generally be credited to “the strength of our mothers, the stability of their households, and the support of extended family.”

In “The Strength of Our Families,” I respond to Dr. Sudarkasa’s call to the Black community as I honor just one depiction of the interconnected Black family. A familial arrangement comprised of mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, godparents,  and “extended” kinfolk that has been extensively misunderstood and stereotyped time and time again- while remaining instrumental in providing emotional, social, economic, and lifesaving support and love to its members.