Grandmothering while black : a twenty-first-century story of love, coercion, and survival / LaShawnDa L. Pittman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pittman, LaShawnDa L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grandparents as parents--United States--21st century.

Grandparents as parents.

African American grandmothers--Social aspects--21st century.

African American grandmothers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (350 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oakland, CA : University of California Press, [2023]

Summary:

In Grandmothering While Black, sociologist LaShawnDa L. Pittman explores the complex lives of Black grandmothers raising their grandchildren in skipped-generation households (consisting only of grandparents and grandchildren). She prioritizes the voices of Black grandmothers through in-depth interviews and ethnographic research at various sites--doctor's visits, welfare offices, school and day care center appointments, caseworker meetings, and more. Through careful examination, she explores the various forces that compel, constrain, and support Black grandmothers' caregiving. Pittman showcases a fundamental change in the relationship between grandmother and grandchild as grandmothers confront the paradox of fulfilling the social and legal functions of motherhood without the legal rights of the role. Grandmothering While Black illuminates the strategies used by grandmothers to manage their legal marginalization vis-à-vis parents and the state across a range of caregiving arrangements. In doing so, it reveals the overwhelming and painful decisions Black grandmothers must make to ensure the safety and well-being of the next generation.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Mothering While Black

2. Black Grandmothering: Role Expectations, Meanings, and Conflict

3. How Grandmothers Experience and Respond to Coerced Mothering within Informal Kinship Care

4. How Grandmothers Experience and Respond to Coerced Mothering within Formal Kinship Care

5. “He Don’t Get Enough Money to Do All That. And I Don’t Either”: Grandmothers’ Economic Survival Strategies

6. Managing the Burden and the Blessing

Conclusion

Appendix: The Five-Tiered System of Kinship Care

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520389977

0520389972

OCLC:

1375298243