Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Blog on Lareau

Okay now I see that Ms. Marshall was concerned about racial inequality.  See, Lareau didn't tell me that before.  It makes sense now.

I'm thinking he didn't mention it in the beginning because he wanted to put a specific emphasis on class.  In the beginning he states that, while race matters when talking about certain resources, class matters much more.  So at first, when talking about Ms. Marshall, it seemed like he attributed all of her reasons for getting involved and questioning authority in her children's lives to her social class.  But he was simply stating that her social class enabled her to get involved.  When Ms. Marshall talks about why she intervened, it was more about race.

So what I get from this is that Ms. Marshall, among many other African American lower, middle, and upper class parents, is concerned about racial equality in her children's lives.  However, the reason that she can make accommodations for her children and question authority when a problem is presented to her is because  she is a member of the middle class and has the resources to do so.  Meanwhile, a black mother of the lower class might feel the same way but feels too inadequate to jump in and question those above her.

There were two different "reasons" here: Lareau talked about the reason Ms. Marshall could get involved; what enabled her to do this.  Ms. Marshall talked about the reason that she did get involved; what prompted her to do this.

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