Not our kind of girl : unraveling the myths of Black teenage motherhood / Elaine Bell Kaplan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bell Kaplan, Elaine, Author.

Contributor:

Russell Hochschild, Arlie

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 p.)

Edition:

Reprint 2019

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [1997]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

One of the most worrisome images in America today is that of the teenage mother. For the African-American community, that image is especially troubling: All the problems of the welfare system seem to spotlight the black teenage mom. Elaine Bell Kaplan's affecting and insightful book dispels common perceptions of these young women. Her interviews with the women themselves, and with their mothers and grandmothers, provide a vivid picture of lives caught in the intersection of race, class, and gender.Kaplan challenges the assumption conveyed in the popular media that the African-American community condones teen pregnancy, single parenting, and reliance on welfare. Especially telling are the feelings of frustration, anger, and disappointment expressed by the mothers and grandmothers Kaplan interviewed. And in listening to teenage mothers discuss their problems, Kaplan hears first-hand of their misunderstandings regarding sex, their fraught relationships with men, and their difficulties with the educational system—all factors that bear heavily on their status as young parents.Kaplan's own experience as an African-American teenage mother adds a personal dimension to this book, and she offers substantial proposals for rethinking and reassessing the class factors, gender relations, and racism that influence black teenagers to become mothers.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Black Teenage Mothers: Becoming a Social Problem

2. Tough Times: Susan Carter

3. Her Baby Days Are Over: De Vonya Smalls

4. The Adult Mothers

5. The Babies' Fathers

6. The Teens' Fathers

7. Girl, Let Me Tell You about Welfare

8. They Are Saying Terrible Things about Us

9. Creating the Potential for Growth

Appendix A: Background of the Study

Appendix B: Questionnaire

Appendix C: Teen Mothers' Demographics

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780520918986

0520918983

9780585047676

0585047677

OCLC:

1149527651