Grandmothering While Black

February 16, 2024

Grandmothering While Black

by Anika Neumeyer

When American Ethnic Studies professor and researcher LaShawnDa Pittman isn’t teaching or leading a mindfulness meditation class for caregivers, she finds time to write books. Important, timely books. Most recently: Grandmothering While Black: A Twenty-First Century Story of Love, Coercion, and Survival; interrogating the role of modern Black grandmothers in “skipped-generation households” (households consisting only of grandparents and their grandchildren). 

LaShawnDa
LaShawnDa Pittman interviewing a grandmother for her research. (Photo credit is courtesy of LaShawnDa Pittman)

Grandmothering While Black recognizes the value of and gives voice to the experiences of urban Black grandmothers and the survival strategies they employ to ensure care for their family. The information that was used to explore these stories was collected from women living in Chicago’s South Side. Pittman conducted interviews with women, welfare offices, schools, day-care centers and doctor’s offices. With all of this information, Pittman weaves a portrayal of the complex relationship between grandmother and grandchild and the challenges they face while navigating state and federal systems over the question of legal guardianship. 

The strong women and families that Pittman highlights at the center of her book tangle with social and legal problems like anticipatory responsibility (the grandmothers’ and Black community’s expectations for the duty of the grandchildren’s wellbeing) and quasi-legal rights (grandparents’ rights that they share with parents and the state). One such example is the case of Nell and her grandchildren. Upon receiving a call from DCFS (the Department of Children and Family Services) that her grandchildren were in the hospital after suffering child abuse, Nell discovered that her grandchildren were being taken into state custody. Despite Nell having said she and her family would care for them, DCFS separated the children into four non-relative foster homes for a week. Although they eventually received the children, they were informed that the family would have to become licensed to keep the children in their care. This included regular caseworker visits to their homes and schools. Nell’s experience with external state intervention and managing quasi-legal rights changed her notions of caregiving and grandmotherhood.  As Pittman writes in the opening pages of her book, the purpose of this project is to investigate “how role meanings and expectations of grandmotherhood among Black women are influenced by the unique cultural and structural forces that shape Black families” (Page 4).

As the current recipient of the Joff Hanauer Honors Professorship, LaShawnda Pittman has been recently recognized for “addressing issues pertinent to our civilization”. Expanding upon her scholarship, Pittman also founded and directed a black digital humanities project: Real Black Grandmothers. This project is an archive dedicated to documenting the lives and realities of Black grandmothers — showcasing  oral histories, artifacts and personal accounts in an effort to share the experiences and wisdom of  Black grandmothers in their own voices.

While Dr. Pittman has undertaken a variety of scholarly collaborations, her main focus remains on studying the coping mechanisms of Black women, the caregiving responsibilities that fall on them, the realities of living with HIV/AIDS and how they endure stressors of racism, sexism, ageism and more. Through the UW Honors Program, Pittman has shared her research with students by teaching courses like “Western Civilization” and “Global Public Policy and Interrogating the Influence of ‘Western Culture’ on Care”. In the American Ethnic Studies department, Pittman specializes in subjects around Black Digital Studies, Blacks in American Law and Advanced African American Studies in Social Science. 

Pittman’s research in this topic continues to expand and push the boundaries of what we now recognize as the American Family. LaShawnDa Pittman is currently working on a follow-up book that explores the history of Black grandmothering, which she has tentatively titled I’m Not Going to Always Be Here: Black Grandmothering from Slavery through the Great Migration. If you want to continue to learn more about Pittman and her work be sure to check out her personal website or this news story that dives more in depth about the process of creating this book. 

Dr. Pittman has multiple upcoming events that the Honors Program invites you to attend:

Book Review

This book is a unique experience for any reader and, as Pittman puts it herself: “Few books have focused on the whole lives of grandparents raising their grandchildren” (Page 12). Pittman’s passion for this project is evident in her writing as she meticulously details her interviews with 74 Black grandmothers living in the Chicago area. From these stories she extracts the hardships they have faced, the systems and assumptions that drive these hardships and what they hope can change in the future.  

At a moment where “more grandparents are currently raising their grandchildren than at any other time in American history” (Page 7), Pittman’s book is a welcome insight into this struggle. From Grace who finds resilience in religion to Sylvia who wants more time for romance to Virginia and Norman who dream about retiring, these grandparents are much more than just their roles in their grand-children and great grandchildren’s lives. While the stories Pittman has gathered are the glue that hold this book together, their truth really shines through in the sixth and final chapter of the book, “Managing the Burden and the Blessing”. In the final chapter, Pittman acknowledges the troubles that grandmothering has wrought on all of these individuals, but also speaks to the joy, love and fulfillment that comes with raising grandchildren. Overall, it was an insightful and eye-opening read that I would recommend to any student interested in the social frameworks of our society and the impacts they have on individuals, especially Black grandmothers.