Mom-lining is the New Redlining: Suburban Pre-K Parenthood as an Activator of White Habitus

• In Event: 3520 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Education

Abstract

Despite policy efforts to bring about racial equity in education and housing, significant disparities continue to exist. This paper examines the influence of parenthood in the construction of whiteness and maintenance of white privilege in school and neighborhood selection. A set of pilot interviews with upper-middle class white suburban mothers in the Midwest offers a look “behind the curtains” into white suburbia in order to better understand the mindset and mechanisms that perpetuate inequalities in power, experience, and opportunity. How do parent networks transmit racialized ideologies and activate practices of white privilege and dominance? Preliminary findings suggest that upper-middle class white parents routinely share racially coded opinions about “good” and “bad” schools. These parenting networks are viewed as trustworthy, and are powerful influences on school and neighborhood selection. An underlying drive to create an ideal environment for their children leads to the creation of a white habitus due to racial bias and material power. Particularly for stay-at-home white suburban mothers, low-status environments for their children are perceived as a mark of failure and lack of care on the part of the mother, thereby driving them to secure a white habitus for their children as a sign of success.

Author

• Laura Mandeville Gilbertson, University of Minnesota