#ThisMama: Serena Williams Amplifying the Perils of Black Motherhood

"#THISMAMA: Serena Williams Amplifying the Perils of Black Motherhood. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that Black women are over 200 percent more likely to die from childbirth-related causes than white women (Hoyert 2020). Routinely, Black women describe attending obstetricians and delivery room staff who ignore the mother’s knowledge about her own body. In 2017, tennis champion Serena Williams experienced similar discriminatory practices when she nearly perished giving birth to her daughter, Olympia. Motivated to end racial prejudice in the medical treatment of pregnancy, Williams publicized her delivery-story and used Twitter to share her struggle as a new mother. This article examines how Williams uses maternal rhetoric on Twitter to build a community of women who resist dominant discourses about medicine and motherhood. Centered on Williams's tweologism (new hashtag) #ThisMama, Alison Lukowski builds on research on digital maternal rhetoric scholarship (Joutseno 2018; Lukowski & Sparby 2016; Owens 2015, 2010; Friedman 2013; Harp & Tremayne 2006). While Williams’s advocacy for Black mothers is a form of feminist mothering, her application of #ThisMama on Twitter demonstrates the tensions between authority, advertising, and advocacy. Keywords: maternal rhetoric, digital rhetoric, Twitter, motherhood, race, Serena Williams, social media "