Politics of Survival

Poor Black women who benefit from social welfare are marginalized in a number of ways by interlocking systemic racism, sexism, and classism. The media renders them invisible or casts them as racialized and undeserving “welfare queens” who exploit social safety nets. Even when Black women voters are celebrated, the voices of the poorest too often go unheard. How do Afro-descendant women in former slave-holding societies survive amid multifaceted oppression?Gladys L. Mitchell-Walthour offers a comparative analysis of how Black women social welfare beneficiaries in Brazil and the United States defy systems of domination. She argues that poor Black women act as political subjects in the struggle to survive, to provide food for their children and themselves, and challenge daily discrimination even in dire circumstances. Mitchell-Walthour examines the effects of social welfare programs, showing that mutual aid networks and informal labor also play important roles in beneficiaries’ lives. She also details how Afro-descendant women perceive stereotypes and discrimination based on race, class, gender, and skin color. Mitchell-Walthour considers their formal political participation, demonstrating that low-income Black women support progressive politics and that religious affiliation does not lead to conservative attitudes.Drawing on Black feminist frameworks, The Politics of Survival confronts the persistent invisibility of poor Black women by foregrounding their experiences and voices. Providing a wealth of empirical evidence on these women’s views and survival strategies, this book not only highlights how systemic structures marginalize them but also offers insight into how they resist such forces.

This innovative, meticulously researched book sheds new light on the experiences and struggles of poor Afro-descendant women in the United States and Brazil. An example of intersectional research at its best, the analysis uncovers how the interlocking dynamics of gender, race, skin color and poverty simultaneously shape and constrain social policies. Building on a long tradition of comparative scholarship on race in both countries, The Politics of Survival offers a sophisticated and nuanced Black feminist perspective on the gendered racialization of poverty in the Americas., The Politics of Survival offers a seamless combination of strong theory, sound methodology, and rich empirical evidence. Mitchell-Walthour anchors her analysis in Black feminist theory thereby centering Black women as the main subjects and using an intersectional approach to highlight the complex reality of poor Black women’s lives., The Politics of Survival treasures the social vision and economic ethics of poor Black women in Brazil and the United States. Mitchell-Walthour's impeccable research champions the political opinions of poor Black Women about social welfare policies and shows how their leadership is the best path for meeting material needs and activating and sustaining participatory democracy. Mitchell-Walthour surfaces how the global face of misogynoir and shaming poor women has been weaponized to disempower, marginalize, steal wages and family futures, and constrain political parties and policy options over generations. This is precisely how gender politics and race and ethnic politics transform comparative politics and how our research shapes a democratic Black Woman led future.

Gladys L. Mitchell-Walthour is Dan T. Blue Endowed Chair of Political Science at North Carolina Central University. She is the author of The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil (2018). Mitchell-Walthour is a national co-coordinator of the U.S. Network for Democracy in Brazil and former president of the Brazil Studies Association.