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

by Dawn Marie Dow

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.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Race, Sociology

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 12, 2019

Reviews

[Melitsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A careful look into mothering and parenting while black. Full of evidence and first hand accounts it was interesting to see a wider range of black middle class parenthood examples. Detailed and insights that make you think. I really enjoyed it. The appendix,notes and citations also give another direction to seek out more information.

[Jessica Orrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Read for SOCY4931*

This book was ok. Ultimately Dow argues that gaining access to the middle/upper classes is not enough to divorce african american women from factoring race into the way that they parent, and that race, gender, and class should all be considered holistically when considering someone's parenting styles. I think this is a good lense to look at parenting through, and it makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, this doesn't really become clear until the conclusion of the book and she really sets it up to seem as if she is going to argue that race is a larger divisor than class, which kind of makes the first chapter of her book not really make any sense.

I'm also critical of the fact that she chose to survey "middle class families" and generalizes this to all middle class families but conducted this research in the bay area... enough said lol

[Laura Contestable · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of the research is good, but I question how several things are presented. The interview questions, coding method, and limitations are not included. Vague language such as "some" or "not all" when discussing the interpretation of the data could have easily been proportional to establish how prominent the results are. There is also a heavy narrative surrounding stereotypes, particularly discussing sons most and very minimally daughters. I don't discount the interview answers, but there needed to be more context to the quotes, as they stand they sound stereotypical and more one dimensional.

[David Pulliam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading with a group and certainly helped me understand what some of my parents assume when talking about their children in school. The three models of motherhood was really helpful in understand where different black moms are coming from. The chapter on the importance of family outside the nuclear family was also very helpful.

Certainly you can't take this book as being the final word since the focus is on parents in California and is based on qualitative research so the scope is limited.

[Esha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read this for my sociology course. I was quizzed after every section, so my enjoyment dwindled a bit as I strained my eyes to read this and take notes at 2am.

I definitely learned about African American culture and the limitations they face due to racism and sexism in every aspect of their life. Really interesting how this leads into parenting.

[FrancescaChirco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for class