{"id":56344,"date":"2018-05-02T15:09:27","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T15:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=56344"},"modified":"2018-05-02T15:10:49","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T15:10:49","slug":"im-not-my-mothers-cleaning-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=56344","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m Not My Mother\u2019s Cleaning Lady"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/narrative.ly\/im-not-my-mothers-cleaning-lady\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>I\u2019m Not My Mother\u2019s Cleaning Lady<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/narrative.ly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">narratively: Human Stories, Boldy Told<\/a><br \/>\n2018-04-30<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lisawrosenberg.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Lisa W. Rosenberg<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/narrative.ly\/im-not-my-mothers-cleaning-lady\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cz598rxdt5our6verxu01782.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/narratively-loveiswise-finish.jpg\" width=\"550\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/loveiswise.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><small>Loveis Wise<\/small><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>People see an elderly white woman and her middle-aged black daughter and assume I must be the hired help.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho do you work for?\u201d the maintenance man wants to know, eyes narrowed slightly. I register his accent just as he\u2019s appraised my brown skin. English is not his first language. We\u2019re alone in the laundry room of my mother\u2019s condo, where I\u2019ve been folding sheets. He\u2019s just walked in, toolbelt at his hips, and stumbled upon an unfamiliar woman of color. I reason that, to him, brown skin plus housework means <em>Help<\/em>. Either I work for someone in the building, or else I\u2019m an interloper from the housing project across the street.<\/p>\n<p>As I consider the best response, my gaze takes in the name-tag pinned to his front pocket. \u201cTony.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s subjugated me with his question, but I know his name. Should I use it and answer directly? With snark?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m self-employed,\u201d I might respond, telling the truth but playing dumb. \u201cI have a private psychotherapy practice in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Jersey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New Jersey<\/a>.\u201d I could add, \u201cI\u2019m very fortunate. My work schedule allows me to visit my mother and do her laundry from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m visiting my mother,\u201d I say benignly. \u201cJust helping her out.\u201d I smile as if it\u2019s a quaint indulgence to do a loved one\u2019s chores, as if I\u2019ve sent the servants back to their families to enjoy a day of rest&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/narrative.ly\/im-not-my-mothers-cleaning-lady\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People see an elderly white woman and her middle-aged black daughter and assume I must be the hired help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,395,414,8,20],"tags":[19827,19826,28595,20002],"class_list":["post-56344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-autobiography","category-family","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-lisa-rosenberg","tag-lisa-w-rosenberg","tag-loveis-wise","tag-narratively"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56344"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56347,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56344\/revisions\/56347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}