#dani mcclain

[universitybookstore]

New from Bold Type Books and Cincinnati author and activist Dani McClain, We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood.

[successfulblackparenting]

New Black Parenting Books For 2020

New Black Parenting Books For 2020

This year may not have started out as well as we all hoped for and we may be limited in what we can or cannot do. While you’re stuck indoors for most of 2020, this is your chance to catch up on some reading and Successful Black Parenting has the newest parenting book releases for us by us. You can find all of the books below in our Black Family Bookstore.

 Fatherless Fathering: A Practical…

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[guernicamag]

Our new issue is out! We’re excited to share with you: features from Wendy Pearlman, Kai Bird, and Jonathan Guyer; interviews with Sujatha Jesudason and Robert Bringhurst; poetry from Benjamin Landry and Elizabeth Metzger; fiction from Josip Novakovich and S. Hope Mills; and in art, a conversation with J. Morgan Puett and Mierle Laderman Ukeles.

Read our new issue here.

[soulbrotherv2]

Being ‘Masculine of Center’ While Black

by Dani McClain

The weekend after the George Zimmerman verdict came down, Erica Woodland of Oakland stayed close to home. She could identify with the righteous anger expressed at the protests. But rather than join in, she canceled plans with family, postponed a trip to the laundromat and limited outings to work and the grocery store.

“I decided for my own safety, I need to stay in the house,” Woodland recalls”I knew I could be putting myself at risk for anything.”

The possibility of being targeted by police or by a fearful, overzealous civilian on account of her race was one consideration for Woodland, who is black. But so was gender. She describes herself as masculine of center, which means that her way of expressing herself - clothes, mannerisms - falls toward that side of the spectrum. It also means that like many of the black men and boys at the center of the recent conversation advanced by everyone from President Obama to Questlove, she’s been profiled as criminal or suspicious.

“We walk through the world and some of us pass as male,” Woodland, 33, says. “We get left out of this conversation.”  [Continue reading article on Colorlines.]

[racialicious]

If black women are holding out for something better than marriage, then we're acting in our own self-interest. According to a review of 2010 Census data and as reported last year, black women are at the vanguard of reframing family for the 21st century: "Among African-Americans, U.S. households headed by women -- mostly single mothers but also adult women living with siblings or elderly parents -- represented roughly 30% of all African-American households, compared with the 28% share of married-couple African-American households. It was the first time the number of female-headed households surpassed those of married couples among any race group." When these heads of household go to the polls, they may be thinking about their own desire to directly access quality healthcare or tax breaks, not whether the inability to marry is keeping someone else from the circuitous route people in the United States have come to accept. The women described above may soon set aside any acceptance of stigma and instead start to see themselves as a political constituency. And once this happens, the same-sex marriage conversation will be forever changed. Bigots may find themselves starved for attention as the movement is forced to confront legitimate push-back. I know that for some, that vision -- outlined clearly in the Beyond Marriage statement is too farsighted for someone who faces deportation tomorrow because they can't marry the person they love today. I know that Salt Lake City's mutual commitment registry is too local for that Texan whose heart is breaking because she can't visit her hospitalized partner. And I can see why the history of the fight to pass the federal Comprehensive Child Development Act in the early '70s is of no consolation to the person who lacks rights to the child they're raising today. That said, these examples and the work of campaigns such as Strong Families have been sources of inspiration for me as someone who worries about the marriage equality movement's blind spots. They've helped me and others understand who gets hurt when romantic and sexual relationships registered with the state (as opposed to, say, familial or friendship bonds) are privileged under the law. There are alternatives to treating marriage as the brass ring, and progressive family economic policy -- accessible to all Americans, regardless of marital status -- is the goal that makes the most sense for a growing number of us.

Dani McClain, "Can Black Women Lead On Rethinking Marriage?," On The Issues Fall 2012