Parenting for most African American middle-class mothers means going beyond existing social and historical issues to provide children with the best childhood. Race, class, and gender are identified as historical-related ideologies that provide a platform for hierarchical and differential relationships with advantages, resources, and power. When observed among African American middle-class parenthood, these aspects are key to their decision-making in raising their children. Parenting while black means navigating cultural and social contexts that often introduce inequality, particularly from the lower-income African American mothers and White middle-class mothers. African American middle-class mothers employ various strategies in response to the threatening social structures they face while parenting. This paper examines how sociocultural stressors inform parenting practices and priorities among African American middle-class mothers in utilizing the available economic resources to provide opportunities for their children.
The study by Dow differs from various unanimous findings that attempt to conclude that since both white and black middle-class parents have a primary objective of developing their children’s social, cultural, and economic capital, the African American middle-class children are enabled to take advantage and eventually reproduce their parent’s class position. The discordance is brought by the prevailing challenges experienced by black middle-class mothers while attempting to capitalize on material resources at their disposal (Dow, n.d.). Black middle-class mothers use the material benefit to confront racial discrimination by making parenting decisions within a larger social context. Faced with racial isolation, black middle-class mothers actualize the class material benefit to decide to access high-quality education and housing for their families (Dow, n.d.). They eventually end up living in White suburban communities characterized by high-performing schools. Moreover, they use their material benefits to establish a network of African American families to offer their families a culturally affirming social support system and peer group. Black middle-class mothers also take advantage of their extended families and community networks in making family and work decisions. These black middle-class mothers value family support, which facilitates integrated motherhood tied to the market-family matrix. In doing so, the mothers receive instrumental and emotional support and access to kin-provided childcare from the community members and family, enabling them to take work outside the home (Dow, n.d.). Many African American mothers perceive working outside the home as an employment opportunity, which to them is a motherhood duty. To a large extent, they recognize motherhood as being self-sufficient caregiving with the ability to provide the family with economic contributions. Black mothers view staying at home as a vulnerability to gender and racial stereotypes, which might render them, welfare mothers. Moreover, black middle-class mothers are identified with an intensive mothering ideology that is child-centered, labor-intensive and emotionally absorbing, and financially expensive. Such parenting is reconciled by middle-class women taking advantage of economic resources to balance employment and motherhood responsibilities.
Sociocultural stressors inform parenting practices and priorities among African American middle-class mothers in utilizing the available economic resources to provide opportunities for their children. The prevailing racial isolation in society and the historical context of race have had a significant impact on parenting, particularly on black middle-class mothers. They make parenting decisions that involve providing safe neighborhoods and schooling for their children. Moreover, they utilize their kin and community resources in providing parenting to their children. By having such a support system, they can take on work outside the home, which marries their belief in self-sufficiency and the capability to support the family through financial resources acquired through pay. The historical and societal label of welfare mothers is negatively perceived by black middle-class mothers; they, therefore, strive to be self-sufficient and well-able to defend themselves from social stressors. The intensive mothering theory is illustrated through the black middle-class mother’s child-centeredness, even though labor-intensive and financially expensive. These aspects of intensive mothering are addressed through the black mother’s ability to navigate social stressors while taking advantage of the material benefits to provide appropriate parenting to their children.
Reference
Dow, D. M. (n.d.). Mothering While Black. Boundaries and Burdens of Middle-Class Parenthood.