Work Vs. Family, Complicated by Race
by Maria Niles

My friend Lynette Clemetson wrote an intriguing article in the New York Times today. I wanted to call attention to it because it is (to me) oddly placed in the Fashion & Style section.

Lynette looks at the different perspective mothers of color (primarily black women) bring (vs. white women and the predominant focus of the mainstream media) to the issues of balancing careers and child rearing.

It is not that black mothers do not wrestle with some of the same considerations as white mothers. But interviews with more than two dozen women suggest that the discussions as portrayed in books and the news media often lack the nuances and complexities particular to their experience.

Check it out - it's well worth a read and written by a journalist worth knowing. Yes, I am biased but I think you'll agree.

Submitted by Maria Niles (view blog) on Thu, 02/09/2006 - 19:53

Comments

 

Thanks

Well-written, interesting, and informative article. Thanks for the link.
Mary
Mom Writes

Submitted by Mary Tsao on Thu, 02/09/2006 - 21:19
 

Insightful. Much-needed

This article was a great read and very much-needed. I was interviewed for this article a couple of weeks ago because I am the editor of Mommy Too! magazine. I hate that I wasn't included in the final piece primarily because I like to be a part of the national conversation on important issues such as this.

Nevertheless, it is an amazing piece, capturing the true opinions of most black moms in America. It's unfortunate, though, that articles about black motherhood only surface about once a year, if that.

Submitted by mama-noire on Fri, 02/10/2006 - 02:10
 

You can no longer read this NYT article if
you don't want to PAY

It's not every newspaper that forces readers to pay four bucks or more to read an article a few days after its publication. It's Feb. 19th and already the Feb. 9th NY Times article central to this thread is no longer available to read free of charge. I've really had it with this particular policy of the Times. - Marian Douglas

Submitted by Marian on Sun, 02/19/2006 - 16:04
 

I agree Marian!

I always hesitate to link to NYT articles for this very reason. I thought this one was special and would go overlooked because it was in Fashion and Style. But you'd think they would either figure out how to support the site with advertising or just make it a paid subscription site like the WSJ. The problem is, they've let the genie out of the bottle and are trying to stuff it back in with Times Select. I think they'd get a ton more links and readers if they stopped the limited free viewing time or, at least, charged a more reasonable price per article. One article shouldn't cost more than the cost of buying the whole paper for the day!

I don't know how much longer this link will be good for but try here.

Submitted by Maria Niles on Sun, 02/19/2006 - 17:00
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