Publisher Description
A warm, wise, and urgent guide to parenting in uncertain times, from a longtime reporter on race, reproductive health, and politics
In We Live for the We, first-time mother Dani McClain sets out to understand how to raise her daughter in what she, as a black woman, knows to be an unjust–even hostile–society. Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy or birth than any other race; black mothers must stand before television cameras telling the world that their slain children were human beings. What, then, is the best way to keep fear at bay and raise a child so she lives with dignity and joy?
McClain spoke with mothers on the frontlines of movements for social, political, and cultural change who are grappling with the same questions. Following a child’s development from infancy to the teenage years, We Live for the We touches on everything from the importance of creativity to building a mutually supportive community to navigating one’s relationship with power and authority. It is an essential handbook to help us imagine the society we build for the next generation.
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I read this book shouting ‘YES!’, throwing up praise hands, pacing the
floor, overcome with gratitude! We Live
for the We is a glorious exploration of how we outgrow the isolating terror
of oppression and lean into the interdependent wisdom of love. McClain asks
questions that require readers to change — change how we think of single
parents, of discipline, good births, freedom, education, autonomy, community,
safety, and ultimately, power. Conversational and precise, McClain uncovers
roots of white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism in the ground beneath our
children’s feet. Parents and caregivers of all backgrounds can learn from
McClain’s deft reporting and storytelling, but Black mothers (and grandis,
grammis, grandmas, aunties, sisters, godmothers, midwives, doulas and friends)
will learn while also feeling celebrated and loved for how we have lived a
legacy of village building, how we have survived the impossible together, and
how we are responsible for a thriving Black future.—
adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good and co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice MovementsÂ
