Race, privilege and the growing class divide

Abstract

When Wilson argued back in 1978 that by the mid-twentieth century social class mattered more for getting ahead than race, he launched a rigorous scholarly debate about the relative importance of race and class that continues to this day. Since the 1970s, the gap between the black middle class and the black poor has widened, lending credibility to Wilson's claim, but also raising new research questions for scholars to ponder. In this essay, I suggest that extending Wilson's model to include a new period, encompassing the last twenty-five years, would help to illuminate more recent structural advantages that contribute to class privilege in American society as well an emerging fault line within the black middle class.

Walking the Intra-Racial Tightrope: Balancing Exclusion and Inclusion within a Black Social Club

“…Tensions are apparent as certain members seek a more even civic-social balance, and perhaps the decrease in the Club's community service activities over recent years reflects growing class divides among Black Americans (Dawson 2011;Lacy 2015). Change, though, may be on the horizon.…”

“…Americans (Dawson 2011;Lacy 2015;Wilson 1980) -remain unclear and warrant deeper sociological consideration.…”

Race‐Making an Idioculture: The Case of a Black Social Club

“…As African Americans began attaining greater access to occupational opportunities and public spaces, more intimate forms of association, or “primary contacts,” continued to uphold the color line. Over fifty years later, Patterson (2008) noted the persistence of this paradox despite an evolving racial frontier and the growth of the Black middle class(es) (see Lacy 2015). “Public integration,” or the inclusion of Black Americans in powerful and visible corporate, cultural, and political positions, has occurred alongside high levels of racial segregation (Patterson 2008).…”

“You Need to be More Responsible” The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities

“…Ideally, this study would include more families of color and capture more intersections between race and social class (Lacy 2015;Lareau 2011). Unfortunately, because U.S. public schools are highly segregated (Reardon and Owens 2014), few schools meet those criteria.…”