Why Real Black Grandmothers®?
While there are many stereotypes and archetypes of Black grandmothers (e.g., mammy, Aunt Jemima, Tyler Perry’s Madea, Martin Lawrence’s Big Mama, etc…) no archive solely dedicated to their experiences exist. Real Back Grandmothers distinguishes between Black grandmothers’ lived experiences and Black grandmothers as romanticized, pathologized, and caricaturized beings. When we tell their stories as imagined rather than as real beings, we not only tell them inaccurately, but also we erase Black grandmothers’ humanity, nuance, and complexity. With this in mind, the mission of Real Black Grandmothers is to create a digital archive of personal accounts, cultural artifacts, living and oral histories that captures the remarkable and diverse experiences of Black grandmothers and their grandchildren from the past to the present.