Race, Work, and Family in the Lives of African Americans

Sadly, efforts to end racial segregation and discrimination have clearly not led to racial equality or a colorblind society. Rather, African Americans have become increasingly class-polarized since the civil rights era as the persistent racialization of American society has perpetuated the wage gap between Blacks and Whites, leading to increased rates of unemployment and underemployment among African Americans. The significant minority of Black families historically headed by single mothers became a statistical majority during the twentieth century, and the tension in the gender relations of Black men and women became a more prominent topic of debate. This compelling and timely collection examines contemporary family and workforce patterns and how they are continuing to shape the quality of life for African Americans across the United States.

This collection is unique in its focus on the contemporary work-family nexus among African Americans. Durr and Hill's selections move us beyond earlier scholarship that focused on de-pathologizing family roles only for Black women and improving job opportunities only for Black men. The strength of this collection is its demonstration of how gender, class, and race interactions simultaneously affect work and family for African Americans., Durr and Hill have pulled together twelve thought-provoking essays that clarify and explain the sometimes complicated world of the African American worker...this volume is a valuable contribution to African American Studies and the sociology of the black experience., A superb collection of articles that examine African American work and family life from an intersectional perspective. By linking the structural aspects of racial discrimination, gendering, and economic stratification to two main areas of social life, Durr and Hill fast-forward the ideas of complex inequality into the 21st century.

Marlese Durr is associate professor of sociology at Wright State University. She is the author of The New Politics of Race : From Du Bois to the 21st Century. Shirley A. Hill is professor of sociology at the University of Kansas. She is the author of numerous books including, most recently, Black Intimacies: A Gender Perspective on Families and Relationships.