Sociology

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Karyn Lacy in her book, the Blue-Chip Black she tries to answer the of how do black middle class Americans try to identify themselves as both middle class and blacks amongst the white populations in the Washington Suburbs. In highlighting the deficits of the previous and recent studies that focus on the black middle class, Lacy sheds light on the complexities of living life in the shoes of the middle class blacks in America. Lacy’s book is more important due to its contribution on the sociological and the psychological research. The research fills the void that has been for long been overlooked that is differentiating the mindset, triumphs and the struggles among the different levels that are within the middle class status and the negotiation of the identities that the those levels entails.

The Blue-Chip Black covers the topics of understanding the black identities and the distinguishing characteristics of the different levels comprehensively. The levels are termed as being middle class, negotiation of identities within spheres, neighborhood selection, boundary work, strategic assimilation. Also the state of mind of the black people as well as the intergenerational differences that are related to the interactions of the whites with regards to the progress that has been made since the civil rights movement. The text acts as a significant source of understanding of how the middle-class blacks negotiate their status in the metropolitan area of Washington DC.

In the past studies, sociologists have kept their focus on the vulnerabilities of the lower middle-class blacks in the urban neighborhoods. Since the Africans in America has become very affluent and has continued to gain access to better and wider housing options, this has made Lacy shift her attention from the lower middle class from the urban structure to the suburbs. It is here that she compares the lives of three middles class African Americans living in the neighborhoods of Washington Dc of the metropolitan area of the Lakeview which consist of majority white middle class in Fairfax County, Virginia; Riverton that has been dominated by black middle class suburb in Prince George’s County, Maryland and Sherwood Park. A majority of the upper black middle class are found in Riverton. According to Lacy, the core of the middle class among the black American earn $50,000 and $100,000 annually while the upper middle class earns around $100,000 and above in a year. Occupation, wealth, education and the use of the black middle-class toolkit are also essential in the determination and definition of the middle class.

In taking her focus on to suburbs settings, Lacy deviates from the past studies of the likes of Mary Pattillo in her book Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the black middle class of 1999 to further extending the complications of our understanding of the class, place and race. Mary Pattillo’s study focuses on the demonstration of how the middle class status is particularly precarious for majority of the African Americans due to their geographic and the social proximity to the lower class life in the urban ghettos. Lacy challenges and compliments the perspective via pointing out that the segment of the black middle class do not adequately describe the full range of the experiences that are within the black middle class and in order to make her case, Lacy focusses on to the upper middle class of the African Americans.

In the study, Lacy utilizes in-depth interviews as well as participant’s observations to the study according to their experience, the ways into which the middle and upper middle class of the African Americans draw their identities to navigate and as well teach their children to navigate along their cultures. In the study, Lacy incorporates the first person account quoting the views of the interviewer according to their opinions. With this, she openly gives a direct account of the honest views of the participants. The researcher builds the argument based on the plight of the black middle class individuals in America to which she tries to look at the various social factors that bind the whites and the blacks such as education, occupation and the economic aspects. According to the interviews it is evident that that the blacks can never alienate themselves from being black no matter the amount of money or the status to which they lie. The blacks are discriminated in every social place that makes them realize that they are black. Furthermore, the blacks tend to create boundaries among the poor and lower-class African American and teaches their kids not to associate with the poor children kids in school teaching them that they are different and belong to a different social class.

According to Lacy’s argument, it is evident that the Black middle-class Americans tend to create a boundary from the rest of the blacks shifting their location to metropolitans and deviating from associating from the lower classes. The accounts of the respondents are more of the evidence claiming of how they relate and associate with the rest of the people including the white and the other blacks. It’s here that we know that the Black middle class tend to live a life that is more inclined to the whites identity rather than according to the African cultures and that they are made to realize that they are blacks through discrimination.

In the plight of the Black middle class, I would have liked to know how they relate to one another as people of the same class, as we are told that they are better critics of the higher black class criticizing them on their living styles and as well creating boundaries with the poor. Lacy would have also incorporated a bigger sample as well as several regions so that she could have attained a more precise and reliable data. Also, Lacy could have taken the views from all sides that are from the lower, middle and upper classes taking their views on the plight of the middle-class black Americans.

The researcher, however, did not carry out the cultural, political and religious aspects and how they tend to relate to the other blacks but mostly focused on the economic aspect. Similarly, gender aspects were not put across in the interviews, and thus the research did not cover all the social aspects of the Black middle class fully. All in all, the research kept me wondering on how a certain group of people can be so much alienated from their identities and instead try to engrave a different culture and lifestyle that doesn’t belong to them. It is astonishing that the middle class tend to react as being special creating boundaries with the poor instead of bridging the gaps.

Reference

Lacy, K. R. (2007). Blue-chip black: Race, class, and status in the new black middle class. Univ of California Press.