Double Burden

Studies of contemporary black women are rare and scattered, and are often extensions of a legacy beginning in the 19th century that characterized black women as domineering matriarchs, prostitutes, or welfare queens, negative characterizations that are perpetuated by both white and non-white social scientists. Based on over 200 interviews, this book departs from these conventions in significant ways, and, using a "collective memory" conceptual framework, shows how black women cope with and interpret lives often limited by racial barriers not of their making. Chapter 1 The Lives of Black Women: Introduction and Overview; Chapter 2 Black Women at Work; Chapter 3 Black Beauty in a Whitewashed World; Chapter 4 Common Myths and Media Images of Black Women; Chapter 5 Distancing White Women; Chapter 6 Black Families: Goals and Responses; Chapter 7 Motherhood and Families; Chapter 8 Finale;