![]() From a purely mathematical perspective, this implies that at some point in the not too distant future, the composition of the American middle class will begin to mirror that of American society as a whole. In 2017, for the first time, the majority of American children under 10 were black and/or brown. is well on its way to becoming a country where black and brown diversity predominates. As our colleague Bill Frey has demonstrated, the U.S. First, the demography of the nation is changing rapidly. Fast forward to 2016 and two trends have emerged which highlight the degree to which the “American middle class” can no longer serve as an implicit proxy for a group that is predominantly white. So, the term “American middle class,” while not historically and intentionally located in a discourse about race, has always inherently been about race, specifically about white Americans. has had a majority white population, it could be assumed that the majority of middle-class Americans were white. Who fell into this category? With most African-Americans and Latinos frequently restricted in their access to high quality education, jobs, or homes and because, over the last 50 years, the U.S. Since at least the 1950s, Americans who were neither wealthy nor “disadvantaged” were, by default, middle class. This was less an artifact of particular calculations than one of historical experiences and demographic realities. This book should be required reading for courses on social inequality, contemporary US society, racial and ethnic studies and Black studies.For more than half a century, the term “the American middle-class,” has served as a political reference to white American upward mobility. Lacy provides a rigorous comparative analysis of how demographics and post-civil rights racism activate the cultural logics and strategies employed by members of the black middle class to negotiate their racial identities and ethnic boundaries, and assert class-based identities as they move between segregated and racially stratified social worlds. This multi-sited ethnography innovates and renovates analyses of racial and ethnic belonging among middle class blacks. "Lacy has given critical race scholars a theoretically groundbreaking comparative analysis of black middle class life in suburban communities. This is the most systematic examination to date of the everyday life of suburban middle class blacks."-Mitchell Duneier, Department of Sociology, Princeton University By focusing on blacks in suburbs, and taking the time to get to know the residents of four different kinds of middle class communities, Karyn Lacy skillfully illuminates the surprising variation in the way her subjects view themselves, one another, and the whites with whom they interact. " Blue-Chip Black is an ambitious ethnographic intervention into the class analysis of the black population. Blue-Chip Black should become a "must read" for all students of inequality, culture, and race."-Michèle Lamont, author of The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration Lacy offers analytical tools needed to capture the impact of neighborhoods and broader contexts on basic social processes, such as boundary work. It represents a terrific contribution to our understanding of the black middle class, and of its relationship to the white middle class and to blacks of other classes. " Blue-Chip Black is an important and original book. Lacy's exploration of how black families negotiate the murky and sometimes combustible terrains of race, class, and place illuminates the hard work that goes into forming and claiming a particular identity."-Mary Pattillo-McCoy, author of Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril in a Black Middle Class Neighborhood An important contribution.” - Society" Blue-Chip Black expertly captures the diversity among African Americans, and particularly among African Americans in the middle class. Rigorous analysis of black middle-class suburban identity.” - Journal Of Sociology “Extremely well done and deserves a great deal of attention in the discipline.” - Contemporary Sociology “Offers a tremendously important contribution to scholarship on contemporary Black life and social class issues in America.” - Journal Of Marriage & Family “An informative reference.” - Diverse: Issues Higher Ed “A nuanced portrait of black middle-class suburban life and identity. ![]() Reviews “An important contribution to research on the black middle-class.
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