Managing Difference: White Parenting Practices in Socioeconomically Diverse Neighborhoods

• In Event: 3148 - Parenthood I: Racial Socialization and Parenting Decisions

Abstract

Drawing on 40 interviews with white parents in two mixed-income neighborhoods—one that is majority-white and the other that is multiracial, this article examines how residence in socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods conditions the parenting practices of middle-class whites, specifically concerning parents’ management of their children’s contact with the poor. The data reveal that white parents in both neighborhoods work to ensure symbolic and spatial distance between their children and their poor neighbors. However, how parents engage in this work depends upon the race of their neighbors and the block-level geography of their community. I find that parents deploy more contact-avoidant practices towards their poor white rather than their poor black neighbors. Among participants, poor whites conjure feelings of disgust and are actively avoided, while poor black residents provoke feelings of ambivalence, as contact with them is judged to be both valuable and threatening.

Author

• Megan R. Underhill, University of North Carolina, Asheville