Take up the caregiver's burden: Stories of care for urban African Americanelders with dementia

This pilot study uses an anthropological gaze to analyze transcripts of ext ended in-home interviews among a set of ten caregivers of African-American elders with dementia. How are race and ethnicity made to matter in the reco gnition of, the meaning-making around and the responses to dementing illnes s among a sample of African-American caregivers? The essay contrasts prevai ling cultural representations of African-American caregiver burden with car egiver interview data. What we find is that current constructs which consis tently demonstrate "lesser burden" among African-American caregivers compar ed with Whites may not adequately capture these caregivers' experiences. In terpretations of experiences, meanings of "burden" and the logic of symptom s in the illness narratives generated by these African-American caregivers of elders with dementia require attention to the embodiment of large scale sociopolitical and historical forces like residential, educational and occu pational segregation, institutional racism, and economic exploitation over the life course.