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

by Dawn Marie Dow (Author)

Mothering While Black examines the complex lives of the African American middle class--in particular, black mothers and the strategies they use to raise their children to maintain class status while simultaneously defining and protecting their children's "authentically black" identities. Sociologist Dawn Marie Dow shows how the frameworks typically used to research middle-class families focus on white mothers' experiences, inadequately capturing the experiences of African American middle- and upper-middle-class mothers. These limitations become apparent when Dow considers how these mothers apply different parenting strategies for black boys and for black girls, and how they navigate different expectations about breadwinning and childrearing from the African American community. At the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, work, family, and culture, Mothering While Black sheds light on the exclusion of African American middle-class mothers from the dominant cultural experience of middle-class motherhood. In doing so, it reveals the painful truth of the decisions that black mothers must make to ensure the safety, well-being, and future prospects of their children.

Front Jacket

Beautifully written, Mothering While Black reveals the advantages, worries, and frustrations of middle-class African American mothers as they raise their children. This insightful book illuminates mothers' experiences around race and the intertwining of race and class in an unusually powerful fashion. Highly recommended!--Annette Lareau, author of Unequal Childhoods

"Is your babysitter afraid of your black neighbors? Does a white parent fear your black baby is toddling over to hit, instead of hug, another baby? In the wake of Trayvon Martin's death, is your teenage boy safe walking to his middle-class home? In this illuminating in-depth study of sixty African-American middle-class mothers, Dawn Dow reveals the unspoken work they do to help their children navigate a racialized world. Some try to keep the door open to poorer blacks, while others fear doing so. Other mothers try to help their children feel affirmed as biracial children in a racially divided world. As one mother told Dow wearily, 'We eat racism for breakfast.' Even the normalcy of being a working mother with a child-tending grandparent (as part of a 'normal' work-family balance)--all this is part of mothering while black. Hugely important, insightful, and wise, this is a book for every parent--and child."--Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of The Second Shift and Strangers in Their Own Land

"A much-needed book that challenges conventional understandings of middle-class motherhood. Dow provides a window into the world of middle-class black mothering in a white-racist society. Showing that family sociology must expand beyond the realities of white middle-class families, she eloquently details sixty black mothers' experiences and strategies for raising children who cope daily with systemic racism, sexism, and classism. Their childcare is not just mother-centered--it must involve extended family and community support. Their work has to be central to everyday experience, so it does not detract from their motherhood identity. Black mothers' integration of work, family, and childcare is distinct from that of whites--and heroically creative because of oppressive socio-racial forces."--Joe Feagin, University Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M University, and author of Racist America

"Dawn Dow's Mothering While Black introduces us to the joys and complexities of motherhood for women grappling with the challenges of two principal social forces in U.S. society--race and class. With compassion and analytic acumen, she explores the perceptions and lives of middle- and upper-middle class African American mothers who continually face the travails of defending against racism and stereotypes. This book is a worthy read for any student of the sociology of the family and its intersections with race, class, and gender."--Prudence Carter, Dean of the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Keepin' It Real: School Success beyond Black and White

"An enormous contribution to the intersectional study of race and family, demonstrating what it is like to parent in a society in which you are devalued."--Joya Misra, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

"An important study of how race and class shape mothering styles and expectations among black women. The writing style is clear and engaging. The quotes from the mothers are engrossing. And the analysis is crisp and illuminating."--Mary Blair-Loy, Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego

"The scholarship driving the book is excellent! Its informative and intersectional approach addresses the significance of race in shaping black middle-class experiences and women's motherhood practices."--Adia Harvey Wingfield, author of Flatlining: Race, Work, and Health Care in the New Economy

Author Biography

Dawn Marie Dow is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Faculty Associate at the Maryland Population Research Center.