The Making of the Black Middle Class (original) (raw)

The Evolution of the New Black Middle Class

2011

Although past research on the African American community has focused primarily on issues of discrimination, segregation, and other forms of deprivation, there has always been some recognition of class diversity within the black community. This research, on the fringe of most scholarship in the first half of the twentieth century, grew significantly with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In this review we highlight the growth of the black middle class itself and explore the debate on the relative influence of class and race in the lives of middle-class blacks in the post-Civil Rights Era. The consensus that has emerged thus far acknowledges the increasing influence of class in the mobility chances of college-educated blacks while documenting the continued role of race in limiting black middle-class achievement. This research also finds that middle-class blacks experience discrimination both in institutional settings and in the accommodations of everyday life. 373 Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2011.37:373-394. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by University of Maryland -College Park on 05/08/12. For personal use only.

Growing inequality in black wages in the 1980s and the emergence of an African‐American middle class

Journal of Policy Analysis and …, 1992

Much recent scholarship and popular discussion posits a substantial movement of African-American households into the "middle class." Yet over the course of the I980s, the proportion of individual black wage-earners receiving "annualized" (work experience-adjusted) wages and salaries in excess of about $35,000-three times the poverty line-fell by 22 percent, even as the share of African-Americans earning below the poverty line increased by a fifth. This was true for all age groups, and even for persons within the black community who had completed four or mare years of college. The growth of low wage employment was most pronounced for black men between the ages of 25 and 34, among whom the incidence of below-poverty-level employment doubled. Black women aged 35-54 experienced relatively greaterprogress than any other part of the African-American community, but their gains lagged far behind those of comparable white women. W e speculate on possible explanations for these developments, on the basis of which a potential public policy agenda is examined.

The Unmaking of the Black Blue-Collar Middle Class

2021

In the decade after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, African Americans made historic gains in accessing employment opportunities in racially integrated workplaces in U.S. business firms and government agencies. In the previous working papers in this series, we have shown that in the 1960s and 1970s, Blacks without college degrees were gaining access to the American middle class by moving into well-paid unionized jobs in capital-intensive mass production industries. At that time, major U.S. companies paid these blue-collar workers middle-class wages, offered stable employment, and provided employees with health and retirement benefits. Of particular importance to Blacks was the opening up to them of unionized semiskilled operative and skilled craft jobs, for which in a number of industries, and particularly those in the automobile and electronic manufacturing sectors, there was strong demand. In addition, by the end of the 1970s, buoyed by affirmative action and the growth of public-ser...

Changes in the labor market for black Americans, 1948-72

Brookings Papers on Economic …, 1973

Changes i n t he Labor Market for Black Americans, 1948-72 THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF BLACK AMERICANS has changed greatly over the past two decades. In some aspects of market position-years of school completed, occupational attainment, and income-blacks have risen relative to whites. Other measures of economic status-employment, unemployment, and labor force participation-reveal marked black-white differences in annual and longer-run patterns of change. Some groups of black workers-women and college-trained men-experienced extraordinary economic advance compared to whites. While black-white differences have not disappeared, the convergence in economic position in the fifties and sixties suggests a virtual collapse in traditional discriminatory patterns in the labor market. This paper examines the secular and cyclical dimensions of changes in the market for black labor since World War II and seeks to determine the economic and social forces at work. It begins with a broad overview of market developments during this period, highlighting four critical dimensions of change: the secular improvement in the relative income and occupational position of blacks; the more rapid relative advance black women experienced compared with black men; the greater sensitivity, compared with whites, of employment and income of black men to short-* Jerome Culp did his usual excellent job as research assistant for this paper. I benefited from the comments of Zvi Griliches, Duran Bell, and members of the Brookings panel, among others. 67 68 Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1:1973 run changes in gross national product (GNP); and the decline in the labor force participation of prime-age black men. The paper then turns to changes in the ratios of income and employment of blacks to those of whites in more detailed categories, disaggregated by region, education, occupation, and age.' The differential importance of changes in incomes within given groups, shifts in employment across groups, and interactions in the overall advance of blacks are evaluated by "decomposition of change" calculations. The potential causes of the observed cyclical and secular developments are considered next in the context of the theory of discrimination initially developed by Becker.2 This theory directs attention to changes in discrimination that result from changes in its price or cost, which, in the period under study, stemmed from federal and related antidiscriminatory activities that penalized discriminators. Ensuing empirical analysis of the major postwar development, the relative improvement in black incomes and occupational attainment, focuses on the post-1964 role of governmental and related civil rights activity; on the occupational decisions of black workers in response to improved or existing economic opportunities; and on the characteristics of jobs and workers that led to different rates of advance in different labor markets. The Traditional Picture At the outset, it will be useful to review briefly the traditional picture of black-white differences in the labor market which emerged from a wide variety of studies extending through the 1960s.3 First, blacks had markedly lower incomes than whites, on average and within comparable occupational or educational groups.4 In 1959, for example, the median income of black 1. Reference to these ratios hereafter will be simplified; for example, the ratio of the income of black males to the income of white males will be termed the black-white income ratio for males.

A subaltern middle class: The case of the missing “Black bourgeoisie” in America

Contemporary Economic Policy, 2020

A convention, particularly in economics and sociology, for empirical identification of the “middle class” has been to mark off a segment of the population above a lower bound with respect to income, occupational status, and/or educational attainment. Instead, we argue here that wealth constitutes a superior standard for demarcation of the middle class. Wealth is an especially useful standard for identification of the middle class from subaltern communities, communities that have a generally marginalized status. We illustrate the value of the wealth criteria by examining the specific case of America's Black middle class. This alternative approach enables us to demonstrate that the Black middle class is proportionately much smaller than the White middle class and to demonstrate the limitations of several proposals recently advanced to close the racial wealth gap.

The occupational mobility of black males revisited: Does race matter?

The Social Science Journal, 1995

This study examined the extent to which opportunities for social mobility (as measured by occupational mobility) have or have not continued to expand for black males since the early 1970s. Among the findings of this study were: (1) intergenerational occupational mobility for both black and white males were associated with their fathers' occupational attainment, however black males experienced greater downward mobility than white males; (2) intergenerational occupational persistence levels were greater for white males than for black males; and (3) race continues to influence the occupational mobility of black males. David Featherman, in an article entitled "Opportunities Are Expanding," assessed the degree to which social mobility exists in contemporary American society.' Featherman sought to determine whether the offspring of lower socioeconomic status families continued to acquire the educational and occupational statuses of middle-class life to the same degree as in the past. He concluded that Americans enjoyed as much opportunity for social mobility during the 1970s as in earlier periods. He noted that for "some, especially blacks in the labor force, opportunities seem to have expanded, even though large inequalities in opportunity persist." This article reassesses several aspects of Featherman's findings on social mobility in light of more recent patterns of occupational attainment among black males. It has been more than ten years since Featherman's article was written. During the 1980s new discussions of race, class,and equal opportunity issues have moved to the forefront of America's social agenda; more importantly, the context for these discussions has changed as well. For example, the debate over the significance of race as a factor influencing life opportunities for blacks has become more potent

A New Look at the Black Middle Class: ResearchTrends and Challenges

This article proposes a new look at the black middle class; continued study of this group and their dually privileged, yet marginalized, statuses may provide further insight into the mechanisms by which race and class continue to act as systems of stratification. This work highlights significant contributions of black middle class research and areas for growth within urban sociology, education and work, and medical sociology. Among the challenges to advancing a new research agenda on the black middle class are: the need for consistent operational definitions of the middle class, variations in methodological approaches, and the consideration of heterogeneity within this group. Overall, there is a need for a theoretical framework to link the many theories of the black middle class, since study of this group promises to advance a broader understanding of social stratification.

Antidiscrimination measures of the 1960s and occupational mobility: Evidence for black American men

Journal of Labor Research, 2000

Based on an economy-wide index, I estimate that the occupational status of U,S. black men, relative to white men, rose an average of.5 percent per year over the [1965][1966][1967][1968][1969][1970][1971][1972][1973][1974][1975][1976][1977][1978][1979][1980][1981] period. After accounting for pre-existing trends, education, and censoring supply factors, approximately 40percent of the increase remains. I argue that these residual post-1964 effects may be attributed to the antidiscrimination measures of the times, particularly Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although there seems to be some cyclical censoring, I uncover no evidence in support of the secular censoring hypothesis that observed post-1964 black male occupational progress results largely from black male labor supply declines. I assign about one-half of the 21 percent relative earnings gains by black men during 1965-1981 to occupational mobility. Compared with previous findings for black women, however, the results suggest substantially lower gains for black men. In addition, occupational advancement appears to explain a much smaller proportion of the earnings increases for black men than for black women.

The Employment and Economic Advancement of African Americans in the Twentieth Century

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

In this article we examine the progress of African-Americans in the American labour market over the course of the twentieth century. We trace their progress as African-Americans moved from low-skill lowwage jobs in southern agriculture to a panoply of jobs including highskill, high-wage jobs in industries and occupations across the country. We also document the migrations and improvements in educational achievement that have made this progress possible. We examine the progress yet to be made and especially the problems of lack of education and incarceration suffered by African-American males. Finally, we examine the importance of anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action in promoting African-American economic progress.