Mothering While Black: Boundaries and Burdens of Middle-Class Parenthood

by Dow (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2019

  $39.10

  In Mothering While Black, Dawn Marie Dow examines the complex and often fraught lives of the African American middle class--in particular, black mothers and the strategies they develop to raise their children to maintain class status while simultaneously defining and protecting their children's authentically black identities. She shows how the frameworks typically used to research middle-class families address the experiences of elite white mothers and inadequately capture the experiences of African American middle- and upper-middle-class mothers. These limitations become apparent when she considers how these mothers apply different parenting strategies for black boys and for black girls, how they navigate the strict cultural expectations of the African American community, and how they shift their orientation when they become breadwinners. At the intersection of race and ethnicity, work and family, and gender and culture, Mothering While Black sheds light on the social, cultural, legal, and economic exclusion of African American middle-class mothers from the dominant culture and shares the painful truth of the decisions that black mothers must make to ensure the safety, well being, and future prospects of their children.