The stereotype of black women as unfit mothers can be seen through the contrasting experiences of two women, Lenore Skenazy and Debra Harrell. In July 2014, Debra Harrell, a black working mother, was arrested and her nine-year-old daughter was taken away from her by the state because she sent her daughter to the park to play alone while she worked at McDonalds. She gave her daughter a cell phone but did not want to leave her alone in their home because of a recent burglary that happened in her building (CBS/AP 2014). In 2008, a few years earlier, Lenore Skenazy, a white middle-class mother and author, wrote a story about how she allowed her nine-year-old son to ride the train in New York City alone. While both mothers were criticized for their parenting, Debra Harrell was criminalized while Lenore Skenazy was credited with starting a new parenting philosophy, free-range parenting (Skenazy 2015).

SEED: This stark juxtaposition of two nearly identical parenting decisions with opposite outcomes is a compelling essay angle on how the free-range parenting movement is racially coded and selectively embraced. XREF: Connects to broader research on racial disparities in Child Protective Services involvement and the criminalization of Black motherhood versus valorization of white parenting philosophies.

Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, loc. 508