Darius Jackson, the father of Keke Palmer’s child, is facing criticism after shaming the beloved actress over a see-through dress she wore while attending Usher’s Las Vegas residency. jackson retweeted on Wednesday a video of Palmer being serenaded by the R&B singer, adding an apparent criticism of Palmer’s wardrobe choice.
“It’s the outfit though… you’re a mom,” she wrote.
He later doubled down on his statement, writing: “We live in a generation where a family man does not want his wife and the mother of his children to show their buttocks to please others.”
Fans quickly came to Palmer’s defense, mocking Jackson, a fitness trainer, for being known primarily as his partner. Amid the uproar, some black women said Jackson’s remarks represent how motherhood and respectability are closely linked in the black community.
One of the earliest depictions of black motherhood is the “mommy trope,” said Adria Y. Goldman, an associate professor of communication at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. The so-called mommy character was “a great mother figure, especially to white families, and was “presented as asexual,” Goldman said. “The focus was on her mothering skills.”
“Generations of black women have been taught that when you have a baby, your life is not your own,” said Yasmine Jameelah, founder of Transparent Black Girl, a digital wellbeing brand. “That we are the caregivers and nurses of our families.”
Recently, Goldman said, the pendulum has swung further to negatively define some black mothers because of their sexuality. There is ‘the stereotype’wellness queen‘ or ‘baby mama,’ the person who was portrayed as so sexually irresponsible that she just had all these kids and is now in attendance.”
The contrast between the “Mammy” trope and the hypersexual mother stereotype produces a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” tension for black mothers, Goldman said. “They can never win.”
A recent video of Palmer surfaced where she was twerking with Jackson present. “The fact that he is a part of the video” shows how “what is considered respectful for black women or how those expectations for black women change depending on the situation,” Goldman said.
Palmer has also been transparent about embracing her curvier postpartum body, which isn’t always the case, as new parents often struggle with body image or feel “insecure in their bodies” after giving birth, she said. Jameelah. Additionally, both famous and non-celebrity black mothers are disproportionately affected by a myriad of adverse health outcomes, including postpartum depression, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and maternal mortality.
Given these health disparities, the fact that “Keke is thriving after the baby” is an “incredible” thing to be celebrated, Jameelah said. “It could be a completely different story.”
Jackson and Palmer could not immediately be reached for comment. Palmer published a Tik Tok Friday afternoon dancing to audio to the words, “you’re not going to stop what’s happening to me, honey.” It is unclear if she was addressing the incident.
Online viewers aren’t privy to the inner workings of celebrity relationships, but the scale and range of reactions to the Palmer incident speak to tensions over how women and mothers are expected to behave.
“That freedom that we see black women have, like the one Keke had at the concert, challenges people,” Jameelah said. “It makes people think, ‘Who are you to feel like you can have this life?’ When black women do well, we try to find ways to put them down.”
