“You're biracial but…”: Multiracial socialization discourse among mommy bloggers with Black and non‐Black multiracial children

Abstract

Objective This study examines thematic content and discourse surrounding multiracial socialization between Black and non‐Black multiracial families on multiracial mommy blogs. Background Mommy blogs have been recognized as a medium through which mothers challenge dominant representations of motherhood, create community with other mothers, and seek out advice. But little is known about how mothers write about and discuss race, racism, and multiracial socialization online. This study addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing how a niche of bloggers—mothers to multiracial children—construct narratives surrounding race, multiraciality, and multiracial socialization online and how their narratives differ by the racial makeup of the blogger's family. Method Using a MultiCrit framework, this study analyzes 13 mommy blogs written by mothers of color with multiracial children. Blogs were analyzed for thematic content related to race, racial identification, multiraciality, and multiracial socialization. Results The findings demonstrate that mothers' orientations to multiracial socialization vary depending on whether the blogger has Black or non‐Black multiracial children. Bloggers who are mothers to Black multiracial children blogged frequently about their engagement in safety socialization, whereas mothers with non‐Black multiracial children did not. Conclusion The stark difference between thematic content from bloggers with and without Black multiracial children highlights the differing experiences among Black and non‐Black multiracial people, for mothers of Black multiracial children, and the implications anti‐Black racism has on family processes.

Shifting toward intensive parenting culture? A comparative analysis of top mommy blogs and dad blogs

“…Although the magnitude of how blogs contribute to popular parenting culture and impact individual readers is contested, blog posts still provide an important lens into some of the most common, pressing, and widely discussed family issues today. As Reyna (2022) explained, “reflections and recounts of microlevel family dynamics have the capacity to contribute to and shape macrolevel cultural production” (p. 1525). Our microsociological approach therefore considers how “big” parenting concerns can be seen and examined through “small” digital narratives (Stolte et al, 2001).…”

“…It would be fruitful for sociologists and family scientists to take a critical intersectional lens to unpack variation in parenting blogs by race, class, sexuality, and marital status. Recent work has found that blog discourse about parental burdens and children's socialization and well‐being can vary in notable ways based on race/ethnicity (Reyna, 2022). Second, because our analysis gave primacy to our qualitative findings, there is a need for comparative quantitative research on parenting blogs.…”

“…Blogging for community development, knowledge transfer, and social advocacy can be taken as an act of parenting itself (see Reyna, 2022; Scheibling, 2020b). Regardless of commercial motives, blogs represent an online extension of the work of exchanging parenting information, advice, and support with others in offline settings like schools, daycares, and community centers.…”