The single black mother as an asset : a qualitative study based on black motherwork narratives

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] African American families comprise an estimated 9,808,000 households across the nation, 37% of which are led by single mothers raising their own children (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). This means that almost 4 million single African America mothers are the heads of families. The purpose of this study is to showcase strength-based narratives of single Black mothers and their views on interactions with the school system and how they help their children through schooling. The overarching research question this study explores is: How do single Black mothers work to support their children's educational journeys through PK-5 school? It is an important question to study for answers because those answers can affect how these mothers and children can thrive in our 21st century academic culture. Data collection included interviews with 10 single Black mothers. The findings of this study described the barriers, resources, and the motherwork of single Black mothers educating their children. Through these narratives, participant Black single mothers revealed what they considered most important in their motherwork: 1) to have high expectations for their children 2) to communicate effectively with their children, and 3) to communicate effectively with their children's schools. Thus, one main purpose of this study was to share how Black mothers support their children's education. Fulfilling that purpose will go far in informing educators and school leaders what is necessary to fully include this segment of our population when deciding educational matters.

Baby Mama

This chapter uses the ubiquitous “baby mama” to discuss what Lindon Barrett calls “bla(n)ckness”—a concept that radically calls into question traditional discourses by exposing the violence that often sets those discourses into motion and by revealing alternative discourses that resist the dichotomization upon which dominance, and dominate discourses, often rely. It argues that not only have social scientists found the link between poverty and unwed pregnancy that has long structured national debates about single black mothers to have been fatefully misinterpreted, but that young black mothers themselves evince the faulty logic upon which these debates so heavily rely.

Long-Run Earnings Mobility among Low-Income Individuals

<p><em>We construct earnings mobility matrices for low-income individuals over 6-year and 13-year periods. Our sample of low-income individuals is drawn from the population of SNAP recipients in Georgia. Using Georgia administrative records, we identify SNAP participants in 2000 and their earnings for each year through 2013 using matched employment security records. We find that a substantial percentage of these individuals have zero earnings in both the initial and ending years. We find that there is a heavier concentration of males, whites, and disabled individuals with zero earnings in the initial and ending years than in the overall SNAP sample. This contradicts some of the characterizations of SNAP recipients in the popular press which often characterizes those stuck in poverty as single black mothers. In fact, the disabled represent the vast majority of those stuck in the no earnings category. Another interesting finding is that single mothers with zero earnings in 2000 have a greater probability, in some cases a much greater probability, of escaping the zero earnings category than the general population of SNAP recipients. We also find that individuals with positive earnings in the initial year experience substantial earnings mobility. </em></p>