Risk processing: Mothering in a time of fear

What the paper says

This article self-reflexively explores the moral ambiguities of white fear in Johannesburg, South Africa, through the lens of motherhood. As a scholar writing on race and whiteness, the author has examined the ideological utility of white fear and its basis in racial mythology, while as a new mother she has learnt to experience fear for the safety of her children. In the wake of becoming a parent, her ability to reasonably process risk has changed, and she finds herself subject to a hyper-sensitised sense of threat that may go beyond ‘normal’ parenting reactions. Being caught between these two contradictory positionalities and being reflexive about them creates what can be described as moral tension. Drawing on this personal experience, alongside a series of vignettes of white mothers’ discourse in social media groups and everyday encounters, she considers how whiteness underpins practices, narratives, and feelings of motherhood for middle-class white women in Johannesburg.