Posts Tagged ‘nannying while black’
Nannying While Black- A deeper look inside the history and perception of the black nanny today
Black nannies in America are no new news to anyone. Actually, I’ll take that back. I once went on a date with a guy who wanted to know more about the work I did. I shared a bit of my background and the nanny side of my profession, then later revealed how I staff households with professional nannies. He thought that was so cool. Not just the entrepreneurial part, but even the fact that I nannied myself. He’d never heard of a “real” job like this outside of your occasional babysitter or daycare worker. So yea, maybe nannying is new news to some.
For the sake of todays post, I want to keep things as short as possible (because most people don’t read for more than 2 seconds these days), and to also preface that I understand that nannies/caretakers exist in many parts of the world, and not just in America. And I know they’re not just black. However today is a look at how far the black nanny in America has come, their perception, if the value of this job has even changed much, and if black nannies like myself should even care. Okay, back to black (nannies).
Black women have been raising (predominantly) white children since during the times of slavery when it wasn’t even an option. You started hella young, and you worked for hella free. I should also add- that slavery in general was nothing you could work your way out of. This fact alone is what makes the historical black struggles different and far greater than that of any race. I’ll leave that alone for the rest of this article though. There was no fancy name, or sub roles for the work you did. Black nannies were just slaves, and they did it all, and then even more. But today, in the land of the free, nannying looks a lot different from what it did back in those days, during those times….Or does it?