Dr. Michelle Hite on Mothering While Black, Everyday Courage, and the Power of Telling the Truth

What happens when the world sees your child as a threat before it sees them as human? What does it cost to raise a child while defending your right to grieve, to question, to be seen?

This conversation centers the weight—and the wisdom—of mothering while Black. In this featured National Black Girl Month™ 2025 episode, we’re joined by Dr. Michelle Hite, Spelman College professor, public scholar, and cultural critic whose work traces the intersections of Black identity, grief, and resistance. Together with co-host Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown, we examine what it means to mother, nurture, and protect in a world that wasn’t built for our safety.

This episode isn’t about resilience. It’s about truth-telling as a form of care.

You’ll hear:

• How cultural narratives, from Mamie Till to Toni Morrison, shape our understanding of motherhood

• Why public strength can’t replace private witnessing

• The difference between independence and isolation—and why communal living is the lesson we keep returning to

• How everyday gestures become sacred acts of protection, memory, and joy

• Why sharing isn’t a virtue. It’s a practice. And we’re out of practice.

Whether you're a mother by birth, bond, or assignment, this conversation invites you to return to what you know: you don’t have to do it alone.

Listen now and access the free toolkit at NationalBlackGirlMonth.com Access Dr. Hite's work: https://www.spelman.edu/staff/profiles/michelle-hite.html Connect with Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown: www.instagram.com/dr.rikesha Connect with Felicia Ford: www.threads.net/@friendscallmefe

More about Dr. Hite:

Michelle Hite, Ph.D. has been a Faculty Member Since 2004 and is an Associate Professor for English, the Honors ProgramDirector and the International Fellowships and ScholarshipsDirector.

Michelle Hite earned her Ph.D. from Emory University in American/African American Studies in 2009. Her dissertation used Venus and Serena Williams as subjects whose representation in popular media, books, videos, and other texts prompted her research questions regarding what their public portrayal might suggest about the intersection of race, gender, and nationalism during late capitalism.Although Dr. Hite remains deeply interested in sports, her intellectual work now focuses on African-American life, culture, and experience in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. To this end, she is currently working on a monograph about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963.In addition to her work as an associate professor in the English department at Spelman, Dr. Hite is director of the Ethel Waddell Githii Honors Program and director of International Fellowships and Scholarships.

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