Is ‘baby mama’ an insult? Eboni K. Williams reflects on the condemnation of the term 

Using Cardi B and Offset as an example, Eboni K. Williams reflects on society “weaponizing the term baby mama.”

Media personality Eboni K. Williams, who intentionally chose single Black motherhood, is not a fan of the connotation society tries to attach to the term “baby mama.” During an appearance on Danielle Cadet’s “Pregnant Pause” podcast, theGrio alum specifically cited an exchange between Cardi B and her ex-husband, Offset, as an example. 

“When Cardi B was going through a separation and divorce with her estranged husband Offset…the most visceral, violent kind of derogatory thing he could call her and refer to her [as, he said] ‘I won. I made a baby mama out of you,’” Williams said, recalling the former couple’s social media exchanges. “Of  all the things…this is 2025, we got a lot of things we could be calling folks.” 

“That was the most horrific undermining of her success, her status and her societal value, and he knew it and everybody that heard it in that moment knew it. That is just how weaponizing the term baby mama and single black mama can be,” she added.

Williams is part of a growing number of women who have redefined what it means to be a “single mother,” through their intentional and planned pursuit of motherhood without a partner. Williams, who conceived her daughter Liberty Alexandria through IVF treatments and the help of two donors. 

“At the tender age of 40 years old, I have decided to embark on a very personal, very exciting, but also, [a] very apparently hot button journey, and that is to become a single mom by choice.” she said in an episode of “Choosing Motherhood.”

An announcement, she said, sparked very “spirited” discussions on social media at the time. 

“I have wanted to pursue the single motherhood by choice journey for the past two years, and I’m so blessed to be here now. But I’m also not deft to how extraordinarily stigmatized it still is,” Williams told People magazine. “My mother Gloria raised me all by myself, and did so in an era and at a time where being a single mother in this country — especially a Black single mother — was one of the most disgraceful things you could do. And in the span of a generation, that’s shifted to where women like me are not just embracing it, but also choosing it.”

Having documented her journey on social media and with outlets like theGrio, Williams felt it was important for her to share her story, especially in today’s political climate.

“Let’s get to the psychology…the emotional impact, of standing up in Trump’s America…God’s America, but under the dictatorship of this thing, and say, ‘I’m gonna raise my hand and I’m gonna be a Black single mother and I’m gonna stand in it. I’m not gonna let you shame me. I’m not gonna let you try to dehumanize me,” she noted. ”Because I don’t represent a poverty story. I don’t represent a story of regret, or worst circumstances. This was my first choice. This was not Plan B or C. Liberty and her conception was my plan A. This was my preferred way to navigate motherhood for my child and for me.”