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4 We Reap What You Sow: How White Constructs Reinforce the Extended Black Family Tara M. Moore

In 1965, Daniel Moynihan defined the African American family dynamic as pathological and urged public policy to focus on repairing it (32). Although he meant no harm, harm was done. For decades afterwards, the African American family was regarded as “delinquent” and

“pathological” due to its presumed matriarchal dominance and lack of nuclear structure. It was blamed as the main reason African Americans failed to achieve socio-economic success while ignoring the ingrained racism of social institutions (e.g. the media, the criminal justice system, the education system, etc.). When African Americans are not the narrators of our own story we run the risk of being mislabeled and misunderstood. However, the technology of modernity has given Black voices an invaluable and affordable platform to counter this narrative: the internet.

Prior to the internet’s expansion and the subsequent rise of social media, the telling of

African American family narratives was limited to those with means – generally Whites or

(upper) middle-class African Americans – limiting the depth, focus, and overall complexity of the portrayal of African American families and the external factors that affect them. But because videos can be uploaded for and by almost anyone, counter-narratives are being presented that remind society that racism persists in people and within the social constructs that govern our everyday lives. For example, the 2012 murder of an innocent Black 17-year-old boy, Trayvon

Martin, received massive media attention as the twitter hashtag #BlackLivesMatter went viral and later became an activist movement. His death and the 2013 acquittal of his assailant, George

Zimmerman, are relevant to the conversation of African American families for two reasons: (1) it brought awareness to the public that the criminal justice system is still prejudice against people P a g e | 2 of color and favors Whites (2) it denied a family justice. What sort of psychological toll does that take on the family unit? Jesmyn Ward’s fictional novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing suggests an answer to this question.

Ward reflected in an interview that part of what motivated her to situate her writing in her home, Mississippi, was the fact that others discounted the humanity and complexity of her characters and those that inspired her characters (Elliot 2017). And having lost a brother herself to a drunk driver who was never charged she was no stranger to grief; all these things – her experiences, stories she knew, things she researched – informed the conception of her award- winning novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. The novel is a mystical story that follows an African

American family as they navigate the intersections of love, loss, class, and race from the perspective of three generations. Utilizing the text, this chapter will explore the potential transmission of trauma caused by the loss of a loved one. As well as the consequential impact that has on internal family relations as attachment relationships are tested, and in some cases impaired.

EXPLANATION OF SELECTED GENRE AND MATERIAL

Sing, Unburied, Sing is a fictional multi-narrative about an intergenerational household in

Mississippi that is haunted by the ghosts of loved ones. The story is told by three protagonists but for the purposes of this essay the primary focus will be on Jojo, a 13-year-old biracial teenager, and Leonie, his Black mother. The household consists of Mam (the grandmother who is dying of cancer), Pop (the grandfather), Leonie, Jojo, Kayla (Jojo’s 3-year-old sister), and used to include

Michael, Leonie’s White boyfriend and father to Jojo and Kayla. The story follows Leonie,

Misty (Leonie’s friend), Jojo, and Kayla on their road trip to pick up Michael from prison, relying on Eastern literary chronotope (i.e. non-linear storytelling) to explain the current family P a g e | 3 dynamic via flashbacks. In the case of Leonie and her family, the source of her trauma is the murder of her brother, Given, by Michael’s cousin while they Leonie, Given, and Michael were in high school. With the help of Michael’s father, a former sheriff, and lack of effort on the part of the district attorney (DA), the murder was labeled a hunting accident (Ward 2017:50).

The selection of fiction as a genre to examine a portrayal of African American families was strategic because of its ability to provide counter-narratives, the part it plays in developing the audiences’ sense of self, and the world in which they inhabit. After all, literature is one of the few mediums that is incorporated into the education system as early as primary school, and it is used during those formative years, oftentimes what students read shapes their understanding of concepts like the Black family. In particular, what makes fiction stand apart from other forms of literature is the creative freedom that allots for narration from more than one character, showcasing humanity and complexity that readers may otherwise be unaware of.

This particular novel was chosen because the generational perspectivity, the perspective of different family generations, serves as a vessel for viewing inherited trauma: how it is passed on and the strain it places on the parent-child relationship thus requiring the support of extended family members. Throughout the novel, the audience is exposed to the lingering trauma of losing

Given that interferes with Leonie’s ability to be a sensitive, responsive mother to her children, ruining the parent-child relationship until neither child looks to her for emotional support.

Instead, Jojo turns to his grandparents for security and Kayla relies on Jojo and the grandparents for comfort. In fact, Jojo recalls the exact moment he stopped calling her “mama” and started referring to her as “Leonie” (Ward 2017:16).

In addition to this, the polyperspectivity grants each protagonist agency with which the audience can get into the character’s minds and understand the motives and reasoning behind P a g e | 4 their emotions and responses to the same situation – humanizing the characters without the author playing favorites. Although, the audience may not empathize with the neglectful, verbally abusive mother, they can understand her as a person and not just a strung-out junkie. This is the beauty of literature: it serves as a portal into the minds of others – contradicting prior held beliefs, encouraging empathy/sympathy, and bridging gaps. In this way, the genre of fiction and

Sing, Unburied, Sing help audiences understand the intricacies of African American families.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS

Two theoretical frameworks will be applied to evaluate the imposition, transmission, and effects of trauma on the family dynamic: critical race theory (CTR) and attachment theory (AT).

CRT is a collection of ideas concerning race inequality that will be utilized to center the conversation around Given’s death and analyze how external forces (e.g. racism and the justice system) intrude upon the family dynamic by creating trauma (Bradbury 2014:18). Next, AT, which focuses on long-term relationships and bonds such as those between the parent-child and romantic partners, will be used to evaluate how the loss of Given negatively affected Leonie and her attachment style to others, resulting in specific family dynamics (Cherry 2019).

CRITICAL RACE THEORY

There are four major tenets of CRT: (1) race is endemic, (2) race is a social construct, (3) racial and ethnic identities are decided by a group and therefore dynamic, and (4) anyone can adhere to hegemony and perpetuate racialized social systems (Burton et al. 2010; 422). “These major tenets are utilized as a means for understanding and explaining the intersection between race, social policy, and the structure/functioning of [African American] families” (Lemmons and

Johnson 2019:88). By viewing the circumstance of Given’s death through a CRT lens the overall P a g e | 5 prejudice against Blacks and latent racial bias in the criminal justice system becomes even more noticeable.

For instance, despite Pop’s attempts to warn Given that racism still exists, he ignored him and remarked that his football teammates were like brothers to him so it was safe to socialize with his White teammates (Ward 2017:47-48). Given agreed to go hunting with Michael’s cousin and some other White teammates and bet Michael’s cousin that he could kill a buck with a bow and arrow before he could kill anything with a gun. That morning the White boys “woke up drinking beer with orange juice because they figured Given would lose” and when Given won he

“shot the n***** for beating him” (Ward 2017:49). When it happened, his so-called friends threw down their beer cans and ran, leaving him alone to bleed out in the woods. The blatant disregard for his life is a clear indication that they valued him as less than human, a chilling reminder of tenet one: society itself is still imbued with race and racial inequality whether or not it is recognized.

In court, none of Given’s friends testified against the defense and the DA agreed to a plea deal of three years in prison and two years on probation (Ward 2017:50). In Mississippi, the penalty for manslaughter is up to one year in the county jail, two-twenty years imprisonment, and at least a $500 fine (Find Law 2016). Despite the fact that Michael’s cousin was in his thirties at this time and therefore a more experienced hunter which should have warranted him a longer sentence, he received a light sentence and never apologized to the family because at the end of the day it wasn’t a White boy that was killed. In this way, the criminal justice system and those that are complicit in this process perpetuate this oppressive, racialized social institution.

And the failure to appropriately administer justice also negatively impacts African American families as family members must find ways to cope with the trauma of loss. It is this trauma that P a g e | 6 if not confronted and resolved can have lasting implications to the family network as depicted in the novel.

ATTACHMENT THEORY

The pinnacle trauma of the novel is the loss of Given. Leonie is significantly traumatized.

Fifteen years since his death and she continues to see his ghost every time she gets high – indicating her failure to confront/resolve her trauma and her inclination to avoid her emotions.

What has this done to the family unit? To answer this question AT research will be applied to (1) analyze early attachment relationships, (2) conceptualize the issues that arise when the bereavement process is not successfully completed, and (3) identify the effects of maternal trauma and intergenerational transmission.

Early Attachments

A premise of AT is that children seek to establish a secure base with their primary caregiver from which to explore the world (Bowlby 1988: 10); whether or not that base of security is adequate depends on the attachment style that develops between parent and child based on the consistency and quality of the caregiver’s response to the child’s needs during infancy: secure, insecure-anxious, and insecure-avoidant (Ainsworth et al. 1978). Those who are anxiously attached desire security and comfort from others but are anxious that they will be let down, and those that are avoidant secretly want comfort as well but avoid seeking it and often disavow it. Countless studies have shown that early attachment styles play a role in later relationships (platonic and romantic), how one manages stress, and possibly addictions to people, drugs, work, etc. (Karen 1998:383).

Although an exact diagnosis of Leonie’s attachment style isn’t possible, it’s safe to say she is insecurely attached and that Given was her only secure attachment as she recalls resenting P a g e | 7 her mother for trying to teach her about herbs and creole religion (Ward 2017: 105). As a result, his loss not only hurts her but sends her spiraling into despair in search of security. This would explain why she latched on so fervently to Michael when he took an interest in her, “he saw the walking wound [she] was and came to be [her] balm” (Ward 2017:54). Their relationship becomes codependent and a way for Leonie to avoid her grief in addition to the drugs Michael introduces to her.

The Bereavement Process

It is speculated that failure to properly mourn, which involves the gradual emotional reorganization and refocus of attachment feelings to new figures, is due to a history of early anxious attachment (Karen 1998:384). Rather than a gradual shift to multiple figures, Michael becomes her only secure base while her parents are “wrapped up in their grief”, and she quickly becomes pregnant with Jojo at the age of 17 (Ward 2017:53). She decides to keep him in an attempt to duplicate the relationship she has with Michael and reconstruct her base of security with her child; believing that in doing this she would have a piece of Michael always (Ward

2017:153). This dooms her relationship with Jojo from the start because a big rule of AT is that parents should not seek security from their children because the child has to rely on the parent - they are their own autonomous being with their own needs and temperament. Additionally,

Leonie is using her pregnancy as another distraction from mourning; so when she is unable to get that fulfilment from Jojo she returns to Michael and drugs - neglecting him and frequently leaving him in the care of his grandparents. Still unwilling to face Given’s ghost and recognize her own issues she tries again and gets pregnant with Kayla: another failed experiment. About halfway through the novel after the family has just picked up Michael and they get high while P a g e | 8 the kids are asleep, she wonders if they tried once more could they get it right and have a baby that looks more like Michael than Kayla or Jojo (Ward 2017:150).

Maternal Trauma and Intergenerational Trauma

The influence of past traumas has been described as “ghosts in the nursery” that can linger and impede a caregiver’s capacity to sensitively respond to their child, with the process being likely to continue across generations (Iyengar et al. 2019:3). Through these means maternal trauma becomes intergenerational trauma. Through these means Given’s death becomes

Jojo and Kayla’s burden. As mentioned previously, attachment styles are determined by a caregiver’s consistent sensitivity to their baby’s needs, due to Leonie’s constant under-response to her children’s needs/distress they develop an avoidant attachment to her and frequently turn away from her.

A perfect example of this is when Michael moved back in with his parents before going to prison while Jojo was 10. Distraught by his leaving, Leonie leaves Jojo home alone to get high and he ends up cutting himself on a jagged can in the grass. Pop and Mam return shortly after and Pop nurses Jojo’s wound – both physical and emotional. When Leonie returns she refuses to accept responsibility for her negligence and downplays Jojo’s pain; this is the moment Jojo refers to her as Leonie and stops thinking of her as his “mama” (Ward 2017:16). Similarly, Kayla fusses when Leonie tries to hold her and screams and kicks for Jojo when she’s upset. Given the circumstances, Jojo and Kayla would display insecure attachment behaviors, maladaptive responses to pain, and inherit their mother’s trauma. However, by the conclusion of the novel the children exhibit signs of secure attachment and a willingness to confront trauma and ease suffering.

“DETANGLING THE PATHOLOGY” P a g e | 9

In the absence of supportive parents, Jojo establishes safety and security with his grandparents, and Kayla with Jojo and the grandparents. Together this family subsystem takes care of each other and does the work to heal past traumas by setting the family’s ghosts free. The third protagonist, Richie, is the ghost of a 12-year-old Black boy that Pop took care of when we has 15 and serving time in Parchman prison for a crime he did not commit. When Richie got mixed up in an escape attempt with a rapist/murderer, Pop, who was in charge of the search dogs, found him before the townsfolk did and decided to mercifully kill him to save him from being tortured and lynched. Initially Jojo tried to ignore Richie the way Leonie ignores Given because he thought that forcing Pop, who cannot see Richie, to tell the story would do more harm than good. However, at the climax of the novel Jojo decides the only way out is through and prods Pop to finish the story then consoles him. This confrontation triggers Mam’s passing into the next world with Given’s ghost as the entire family comes together to send her off. The final scene is a couple weeks later at the base of a tree near the house where ghosts of countless tortured souls spanning across generations who are too full of grief to pass on reside – including

Richie. Now Kayla can see the ghosts too and she sings them to peace until they all sing “home” and cross over (Ward 2017:284-285).

Sing, Unburied, Sing teaches readers that although structural paradigms (e.g. the criminal justice system) can inflict trauma upon the African American family that reverberate through generations by damaging internal familial relationships, that trauma can also be combatted through individual confrontation as well as well collectively with the supplemental resources the extended family offers. It challenges the notion that the extended family structure is pathological or culturally deficient by demonstrating how it can protect and heal. P a g e | 10

It could be argued that this is an inaccurate depiction because the book is fictional.

However, the loss of her own brother, 17 years before the novel was published, is present within

Leonie’s pain: “ever-present, silent-footed” (Ward 2017). As Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina

Fulton, shared eight years after losing one of her sons she still cries for him and others who are wrongfully killed (Fulton: 2020). In fact, she thought about not attending George Floyd’s funeral because it was too painful to watch another mother weep for their son, but she decided to go to show her support and let them know they are not alone (Fulton: 2020). So yes, this story is fictitious in nature, but it is inspired by real events that Black families face more than anyone should ever have to. And the fact that the cited empirical attachment research could be applied to explain the responses of the characters further purports the credibility of Ward’s representation.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY

Ward wanted to showcase the humanity and complexity of her people in her stories, and in doing so she also showcased the humanity and complexity of African American families. And because African American families are complex, the story of one family is not necessarily the story of all. We are not a monolith. As a result, Black storytelling and Black voices must continue to be amplified so that all portrayals of the family from different positions of intersection such as class, sexual orientation, ability, and gender can be presented and offer their unique alternative perspectives.

The novel also brings something else to the forefront that is often ignored: mental health.

Fulton related her mental state and reaction to hearing of others losing their children to PTSD because she relieves the trauma all over again (Fulton: 2020). Feelings such as these need to be openly discussed and counseling made available to grieving families to avoid creating Leonies who never receive proper mental care and/or do not have faith to fall back on. By providing P a g e | 11 mental health resources to supplement that of the extended family and any pre-existing spiritual networks, we can better help African Americans cope with not just loss but in general the stress of being Black in America.

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