Abandoned families : social isolation in the twenty-first century / Kristin S. Seefeldt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Seefeldt, Kristin S., author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

JSTOR (Online Service)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Economic conditions.

United States.

Economic conditions.

United States--Social conditions.

Social conditions.

Families--United States.

Families.

Poor families--United States.

Poor families.

Marginality, Social--United States.

Marginality, Social.

Family services--United States.

Family services.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 263 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York : Russell Sage Foundation, [2017]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Choosing whom to marry involves more than emotion, as racial politics, cultural mores, and local demographics all shape romantic choices. In Marriage Vows and Racial Choices, sociologist Jessica Vasquez-Tokos explores the decisions of Latinos who marry either within or outside of their racial and ethnic groups. Drawing from in-depth interviews with nearly 50 couples, she examines their marital choices and how these unions influence their identities as Americans. Vasquez-Tokos finds that their experiences in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood shape their perceptions of race, which in turn influence their romantic expectations. Most Latinos marry other Latinos, but those who intermarry tend to marry whites. She finds that some Latina women who had domineering fathers assumed that most Latino men shared this trait and gravitated toward white men who differed from their fathers. Other Latina respondents who married white men fused ideas of race and class and perceived whites as higher status and considered themselves to be "marrying up." Latinos who married non-Latino minorities--African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans--often sought out non-white partners because they shared similar experiences of racial marginalization. Latinos who married Latinos of a different national origin expressed a desire for shared cultural commonalities with their partners, but--like those who married whites--often associated their own national-origin groups with oppressive gender roles. Vasquez-Tokos also investigates how racial and cultural identities are maintained or altered for the respondents' children. Within Latino-white marriages, biculturalism--in contrast with Latinos adopting a white "American" identity--is likely to emerge. For instance, white women who married Latino men often embraced aspects of Latino culture and passed it along to their children. Yet, for these children, upholding Latino cultural ties depended on their proximity to other Latinos, particularly extended family members. Both location and family relationships shape how parents and children from interracial families understand themselves culturally. As interracial marriages become more common, Marriage Vows and Racial Choices shows how race, gender, and class influence our marital choices and personal lives.

Contents:

From social isolation to social abandonment

Abandoned Detroit

Abandoned by institutions of inclusion and stability: the failed promise of employment

Abandoned by institutions of mobility: the failed promise of post-secondary education and home ownership

Abandoned by the safety net: contestations, denials, and incompetence in benefit processing

Debt: the new sharecropping system

Making abandoned families striving families again.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. New York Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on October 26, 2017).

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Other Format:

Print version: Seefeldt, Kristin S., author. Abandoned families

ISBN:

9781610448628

1610448626

Publisher Number:

99976886314

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.