|
Matt
said, "Let ins break it down for you. White folks invented these
debitramp balls so that
their darling little heifers could git a good shot at the prize bull
in the pasture..." John Oliver Killens, The Cotillion, 1971 |
The
Black middle class is a small part of the Black community, but it has more
and lives with less hardship than the majority of Black people. Middle-class
people have smaller family units, higher incomes, more homeownership, more
education, jobs with more authority and independence, more and higher
quality consumption of necessity items and luxury items, etc. The fact is
that some Black people have always lived better than most. But it is also
true that the Black middle class has been very insecure at every stage of
Black history. Middle-class privilege has been rooted more in the shifting
character of status than in the firmer base of economic ownership.
THE
SLAVE PERIOD
The
overwhelming reality of the slave system was that all Black people had the
same basic class position, that of being a slave. This class did not own
anything; most importantly, they did not own themselves. Therefore, in
strict terms, most Blacks were in the same class during slavery. However,
the objective differentiation that did matter was in the technical
division of labor.
The
basic distinction between house slaves and field slaves was the
difference between service work in the house and production work in the
field. Some specialized production by skilled craft workers took place near
the slavemaster's house (e.g., the blacksmith) but the main production was
done as field work. Field slaves worked collectively (though not with a high
level of interdependence, as later developed in assembly line
factory-production)
and had more limited contact with whites. House slaves were fewer in number
and often developed very close ties with their white masters. This close
association became the first basis for status distinctions among Blacks in
the United States: an aristocracy based on color and style. The more
"white blood" (the lighter in skin color), the higher the status;
the more one was able to "mimic white behavior" (through
hand-me-down clothes, speech, etc.), the more status one had.
House slaves were conditioned to have commitment and loyalty to the slavemaster. This point is dramatically made by Malcolm X in a 1963 interview on the radio in Philadelphia:
| The house Negro was the one who lived in, the master's house, ate the master's food, at the master's table usually - after the master had finished with it. He dressed like the master, which means he wore the same type of clothing that the master did, but usually it was clothing handed down to him by the master. He identified the master's house as his own. If the master said, "We have a fine house here," the house Negro would say, "Yes, our house is a fine house." Whenever the master said, "We," he said, "We." If the master said, "We have good food on our table," the house Negro would chime in and say, "Yes, we have plenty of food, boss, on our table." The house Negro would also identify himself so closely with his master that when the master was sick the house Negro would say, "What's the matter, boss, we's sick?" When the master was sick he was sick. If the master's house caught on fire the house Negro would fight harder to put the flames out or keep the flames from enveloping the master's house than the master would himself. |
The other group of privileged Blacks within the slave system was called
"freedmen." Some free Blacks owned land, but as E. Franklin
Frazier pointed out in the The Negro in the United States, most were
only subsistence farmers:
|
In 1830 the free Negroes owned about 32,000 acres of land valued at $184,184, and by 1860 both the acreage and the value of the farms owned by free Negroes had doubled. Since nearly half (43%) of the farms owned by the 1,200 free Negro farm owners contained 25 acres or less, it may be assumed that these farms were used for subsistence rather than for commercial enterprises. |
Ira
Berlin notes the slave system was so threatening to free Blacks that
they were often uncooperative and decidedly conservative with respect to the
well-being of their fellow Blacks who were in slavery:
| Standing a step above the slave, free Negroes simply had too much to lose to take the lead in breaking the bonds of servitude. They too suffered the pains of white oppression, but free Negroes could look down to slavery as well as up to complete freedom. They could see how their status might degenerate, and they knew that whites needed only the flimsiest excuse to take their liberty. Having learned to squeeze a few precious benefits from their caste status, they were not about to surrender them without a guarantee of something better. Freedom within the context of slavery gave free Negroes something to protect and transformed them into a conservative caste. The general insecurity of free Negro life, the sure knowledge that free Negroes suffered whenever whites felt threatened, and their growing material prosperity reinforced that conservatism. |
Berlin
goes on to point out that the conflict between free Blacks and Black slaves
was caused by slavemasters who were interested in preventing Black unity
against the slave system:
| 'Whites promoted these differences between free Negroes and slaves, just as they tried to divide field hands and house servants, unskilled bondsmen and slave artisans. They gladly rewarded free Negroes who informed on slaves, just as they almost always freed slaves who revealed impending insurrections. |
Some
free Blacks were slaveowners themselves. Much of this can be explained by
the fact that they often purchased their family members and friends.
However, like white slaveowners, some Blacks did own slaves for their own
economic advantage. Berlin provides further insight into how an economic
system based on slavery functioned to divide Blacks:
Economic success in the South depended largely on the ownership of slaves, and free Negroes were no more exempt from this than whites. Although most free Negro slaveholders were truly benevolent despots, owning only their families and friends to prevent their enslavement or forcible deportation, a small minority of wealthy freemen exploited slaves for commercial purposes. This small group of free Negroes were generally the wealthiest and best-connected members of their caste... Slaveholding
free Negro planters identified...closely with the Southern ideal. Andrew
Durnford, who owned a Louisiana plantation which he worked with some
seventy-five slaves, was finely attuned to the planter ideology and considered himself a patriarchal master in the best tradition. Although he
raided endlessly against the seeming incompetence and indolence of his
"rascally negroes" he took pride in his role as their protector as
well as their owner. When Norbert Rillieux, a French-trained free Negro
engineer who had invented a new method of refining sugar, offered Durnford
$50,000 for use of his plantation to test the vacuum process, the planter
turned him down, noting that he could not "give up control of his
people." Durnford's |
These few Black slaveowners wanted to retain their class privilege.
An additional group with special standing was the skilled craft workers (or artisans). Slaves were the dominant skilled craft workers in many areas of the South, and as such they were accorded certain privileges. Some free Blacks were skilled craft workers in both the North and the South. Marcus Christian provides an example of the artisans in his study of Black ironworkers in Louisiana:
| Working alongside the slave ironworkers, though not allowed to associate with them socially, were the free Negro and the f.m.c. - free man of color. For almost the entire life of the colony, slaves, free Negroes, and free people of color had practically monopolized the labor situation. The free men of the race naturally had the better part of the situation since they worked for themselves. For generations they had apprenticed their sons to expert mechanics in the building trades. In fact, a thorough knowledge of a particular trade had been the means by which many of them had gained their freedom. |
While slaves were sometimes able to use their status as artisans to help them gain their freedom, some free Blacks were able to use their position as craft workers as a stepping stone to other businesses and professions. Most self-employed artisans were eventually absorbed into large-scale industrial production. Those who work in the building trades or who do specialty work in wood, glass, metal, and cloth can trace their heritage back to the artisans of the slave period.
In
general, privilege under slavery existed mainly in the form of status.
There were status distinctions between house slaves and field slaves and
between those who were skilled craft workers and those who weren't. The
main class distinction was between slaves and free Blacks, and secondarily
between those few Blacks who owned land and slaves and those who did not.
THE RURAL PERIOD
The
Civil War and Reconstruction transformed the class relations in the United
States, especially (but not exclusively) in the South. For Blacks, the
main thing was the end of slave class relations. After some
experimentation, wage labor (paid by the hour) was rejected due to the
mass resistance and independence of the newly freed slave workers. What
developed in conjunction with the Black
Codes, however, was a semi-slave, semi-free system of tenant production
(see Chapters 5 and 13). The tenant system had within it different class
positions in which Blacks were able to maintain some level of privilege.
| The number of Negro farm owners in the South gradually increased until 1910 when they owned 24.5 per cent of the farms operated by Negroes. But during the following 20 years tenancy among Negroes as among whites steadily decreased until by 1930 only one out of five Negro farmers in the South was an owner. In 1929 Negro owners of farms produced only 3.8 per cent of the cotton in the South, whereas 28.6 per cent of the entire cotton crop was produced by Negro tenants. During the decade, 1930 to 1940, there were important changes in the rural Negro population both in respect to numbers and land tenure. The number of owners continued to decline; but there was also a decline of almost 200,000 in the number of tenants...As a result there was a small increase in the proportions of owners among Negro farm operators as compared with a much higher increase in this class among whites. In 1940 there was about the same number of Negro land owners as in 1900; and they represented the same proportion among farm operators in 1940 as in 1900. On the other hand, while the number of Negro tenants and croppers had decreased through migrations, the proportion of tenants among farm operators had remained the same. However, it should be noted that the portion of croppers among these tenants had increased during the four decades. |
Since World War II, there has been an increasing decline in the number of people engaged in agricultural production, especially among Blacks. The pattern of ownership has increased within the general pattern of decline - there are fewer Black farm operators and owners, but a relatively higher proportion of farms are owned, as indicated in Table 17.
Lester Salamon demonstrates that the Black-owned farms are concentrated in the Black Belt:
|
Much
of this black-controlled land is concentrated in a relative handful
of states. As of 1969, for example, Mississippi alone accounted for
almost one quarter of the black farm landowners in the region. Four
states - Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina -
account for almost 60 percent of all black farm landowners and 52
percent of all black-controlled land... Black-owned
land is not only concentrated among a handful of states, but also is
concentrated (within) them...[O]nly 492 of the more than 1,000
counties in the South contain as much as 2,000 acres of black-owned
land. And of these counties, 92 contain in excess of 20,000 acres
each.
|
Table 17
17 MINORITY OWNERS OF FARMS IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES (000'S)
| Total | Full Owner | Part Owner | % Owners (Full & Part) | |
| 1950 | 559 | 141 | 52 | 34.5 |
| 1964 | 185 | 71 | 31 | 55.2 |
| 1978 | 61 | 36 | 15 | 83.7 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1981, p. 662.
The
vicious system of racial/national oppression (called "Jim Crow")
that was set up during the rural period was met by increased desires and
appeals for Black unity. Robert Higgs explains how the Black middle class
reacted:
| Perceiving that such an appeal to racial solidarity might be turned into private profits, increasing numbers of blacks established business enterprises. DuBois estimated that about 5,000 blacks operated businesses in 1890. The National Negro Business league, an organization founded by Booker T. Washington, estimated that the number reached 20,000 in 1900 and 40,000 in 1914, but these figures are probably overstatements. Most of these enterprises were small - so small that they could be operated with little or no hired help - and most involved retailing or personal services. Grocery stores, restaurants, saloons, pool rooms, barber shops, undertakers, real estate agencies, and boarding houses were common. Of the 1,906 black businesses surveyed in 1899, only 12 represented investments of $50,000 or more; and 79 percent of them involved capital sums of less than $2,500. The largest enterprises included insurance companies, banks, newspapers, and real estate agencies, but even they were small by the standards of the white world |
The
older mechanism of status continued to operate, especially in this period
of freedom within the rigid limitations of segregation. The main
additional criteria were homeownership and living by the moral codes set
by the church. The minister and church leaders regulated status as an
institutional resource to mold the Black community into a cohesive whole,
albeit one controlled by those "anointed with the blessing of
status." (See Chapter 10.)
THE
URBAN PERIOD
It
was primarily in the city that the Black middle class developed,
beginning as far back as antebellum slavery but taking full shape during
the 20th century. The economic bases of the Black middle class in the city
were the professions and ownership of business and real estate. Over the
years, the professions have replaced business as the main avenue of upward
mobility. Moreover, professionals now are more likely to be employed by
large corporations than to be self-employed as they were in the past.
Educational
attainment has emerged as an important status mechanism. The old-line
status mechanisms were transformed in importance. While proximity to
whites (especially color and speech)
was still positive source of status, distance from whites was no longer
as negatively regarded as it had been. In fact the old adage "if
you're Black get back!" was replaced in the 1960s by another old
adage "the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice." One of the
important indicators of how Black social protest is good for the mental
health of Black people is that during the 1960s Black people began to
change their value orientation toward skin color. The slogan was
"Black is beautiful," and styles changed to an African-inspired
aesthetic.
The
socioeconomic characteristics of the Black middle class since the 1960s
have approximated those of the white middle class. This has led to the
debate over how best to analyze the Black community - on the basis of
race, class, or both. Milton Gordon uses the term "ethclass" to
suggest that an understanding of white ethnics might best be based on
ethnicity and class, and James Geschwender borrows from this and coins the
expression "race-class" to suggest that the Black experience might
best be understood in terms of race and class. William Wilson, in his book
The Declining Significance of Race, makes the argument that the
Black middle class in many ways has virtually achieved parity with whites,
especially in educational achievement and job entry of the upwardly
mobile. The masses of poor Blacks, however, are trapped in the working
class and a structural underclass with little if any hope for a life of
gainful employment. He argues that while some Blacks are moving up, most
are locked into a life of poverty. He cites the following occupational
description:
| The most dramatic changes in black mobility occurred during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. Whereas 16.4 percent of black males were employed in middle-class occupations in 1950, 24 percent held such jobs in 1960 and 35.3 percent in 1970. Whereas 21.3 percent of black males were in essentially working-class jobs in 1950, 26.6 percent were so employed in 1960 and 29.4 percent in 1970. Finally, whereas 62.1 percent of all black employed males were in basically lower-class jobs in 1950, 50.7 percent held such jobs in 1960 and only 36.4 percent in 1970. |
However, given the austerity of the 1970s, the economic insecurity of the Black middle class has proven itself as it is now "catching hell" in this economic downturn of the 1980s. In order to capture the essence of the Black middle class in the city, we will review briefly the experience of Blacks in business and the professions.
Business
Black people have engaged in commercial enterprises (mostly small businesses) for some time in the city environment. The owner of a small business is self-employed, with few if any paid employees other than family members. Black small businesses have been mostly in retail trade (e.g., a grocery or clothing store) or in the services (e.g., hair care and catering). This has been the main basis for what has been called "Black Capitalism"
The
growth of Black businesses between 1863 and 1913,can be seen in Table 18.
Black businesses continued to grow, although their character was
transformed along with the overall development of the Black community.
E. Franklin Frazier points this out in Black Bourgeoisie with a
discussion of Black business development in Chicago:
| One may get a notion of the nature of Negro business in the North by considering first the situation in Chicago. During the fifteen years prior to the mass migrations from the South, the number of Negro businesses reached 500. The majority of these enterprises were in the service field, with barber shops and moving and storage establishments forming the majority of the enterprises. It was the mass migrations from the South during and following World War I that created the Negro market in Chicago which Negro businesses sprang up to serve. Conspicuous among the Negro businesses were the two banks and four insurance companies. During the Depression the two Negro, banks failed and many of the larger business establishments were wiped out. At the same time the smaller businesses increased in number because unemployed Negroes with small savings opened small stores as a means of securing a living. In 1938 there were about 2,600 Negro businesses in Chicago. Of the ten most numerous establishments there were 287 beauty parlors, 257 groceries, 207 barber shops, 163 tailors, cleaners, and pressers, and 145 restaurants. The remaining five most numerous types of business - coal and wood dealers ,taverns, undertakers, shoe repairing and dress making - were represented by less than 100 establishments |
Table
18
BLACK BUSINESSES, 1863-1913
| Year | Total Number of Businesses |
| 1863 | 2,000 |
| 1873 | 4,000 |
| 1883 | 10,000 |
| 1893 | 17,000 |
| 1903 | 25,000 |
| 1913 | 40,000 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, The Social and Economic Status of the Black Population in the United States, p. 78.
Since the 1960s there has been a dramatic growth of Black businesses. From 1969 to 1982, there was a 119% increase in the number of businesses and a 278% increase in the gross sales (see Table 19). Of the 357,000 Black businesses in 1982, the top 100 included companies in manufacturing (13), industrial supply (14), energy distribution and sale (9), construction and contracting (13), automotive sales and service (29), publishing and entertainment (9), and other consumer sales (14). It is interesting that only 24 of the largest 100 have headquarters in the South, while Chicago has 8 and New York 13.
Blacks are also involved in financial institutions. As of 1981, there were 46 Black banks, employing 1,943 people and with assets of $1.3 billion. The top 10 Black banks had 52.2% of these assets. There were 38 Black insurance companies, employing 7,240 people and with assets of over $725.8 million. The top 10 Black insurance companies held 87.4% of the assets. Overall, although Black businesses are growing, most are quite small and marginal. Lenneal Henderson sums up the general picture in nine points:
|
(1) Almost
95% of black-owned firms operated as sole proprietorships rather
than as partnerships or corporations; (8) The top 100 black industrial firms accounted for some $1.5 billion in sales and employed 17,827 persons. When related to aggregate employment of black-owned firms in 1977, black-owned firms are labor-intensive without being employment-intensive; that is, black-owned firms employ a tiny proportion of the total number of blacks in the work force but their industries tend to require more labor than automated processes; (9) As Robert Hill indicates:
|
Table
I 9
BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES, 1969-1982
|
Year |
Number |
Gross Sales (millions) |
|
1969 |
163,073 |
4,474 |
|
1972 |
194,986 |
7,168 |
|
1977 |
231,203 |
8,645 |
| 1982 | 357,000 | 16,900 |
Source: Derived from National Urban League, The State of Black America, 1983, pp. 158 and 383; U.S. Bureau of the Census, The Social and Economic Status of the Black Population in the United States, p. 78; and Black Enterprise, June 1983.
The
Professions
The
professional sector of the middle class is highly skilled, enjoys work
conditions that allow for relative independence on the job, and receives
material rewards reflected in relative comfort
and the consumption of luxuries. Black professionals developed in
two waves, paralleling the general development of the middle class,
though very few professionals existed before the Civil War. First to
develop were the traditional professions of teaching and the
ministry. Then came the more bureaucratic and technical professions in medicine and
law.
Table 20 indicates that the main category is teaching. The historical dominance of the clergy is rapidly being matched by doctors, lawyers, and judges. These professions, however, are not equal for Black women. Black women are 78.9% of the 1980 teachers, but only 5.9% of the Black clergy, 23.8% of the Black doctors, and 31.4% of the Black lawyers and judges.
At
the technical level of the professions, special attention has to go to the
Ph.D. level of education. Many professions (especially in scientific
research, technical fields, and higher education) require the Ph.D.
degree. Blacks, however, are not getting Ph.D.'s in every field. They are
mainly in education. From 1973-1976, of 2,253 Ph.D.'s awarded to Black men
over 58% were in education; out of 1,177 Ph.D.'s awarded to Black women 66%
were in education. Both Black men and Black women had about 23% of their
respective number of Ph.D.'s in psychology, social sciences, and the
humanities.
Table
20
BLACKS IN SELECTED PROFESSIONS, 1890-1980
| Year | Teachers (except college) |
Clergy | Physicians and Surgeons | Lawyers and Judges |
| 1890 | 15,100 | 12,159 | 909 | 431 |
| 1910 | 29,432 | 17,495 | 3,077 | 798 |
| 1940 | 63,697 | 17,102 | 3,524 | 1,052 |
| 1960 | 122,163 | 13,955 | 4,706 | 2,180 |
| 1970 | 235,436 | 12,850 | 6,106 | 3,728 |
| 1980 | 362,937 | 16,045 | 13,243 | 15,133 |
The overall structure of the Black middle class is reflected in its occupational composition. As indicated in the census of individuals in Table 22, the percentage of Black males in the middle class has remained relatively constant. However, within the Black middle class, there has been a shift from farmers to professionals, with a slight decline in the percentage of individual shopkeepers (self-employed individuals in retail trade). The pattern for Black women is somewhat different. Women were 43% of the employed middle class in 1973. Further, in 1979, of all employed Black women 0.1% were farmers, 0.4% were in business, but 14.2% were professionals. Thus, while 14.7% of Black women were in these main middle-class occupations, only 11.8% of employed men were. The main difference is the tendency of women to be more often, in the professions and men to dominate in farming and business.
Table 21
BLACKS EARNING THE PH.D. DEGREE, 1866-1976
| Year | Number |
| 1866-1919 | 23 |
| 1930-1939 | 179 |
| 1950-1959 | 1,197 |
| 1970-1976 | 6,226 |
Source:
Derived from John P. Davis, ed., The American Negro Reference Book,
p. 564 and National Urban league, The State of Black America, 1980,
p. 89.
Table
22
SECTORS OF BLACK MIDDLE CLASS AS PERCENT OF TOTAL BLACK EMPLOYED MALES,
1958-1979
| Total (000s) | Farmers | Shopkeepers | Professionals | Total | |
| 1958 | 3,821 | 5.8 | 1.0 | 3.2 | 10.0 |
| 1963 | 4,229 | 3.4 | .9 | 4.9 | 9.2 |
| 1968 | 4,702 | 2.0 | .8 | 6.6 | 9.4 |
| 1973 | 5,13 | 1.1 | .8 | 8.2 | 10.1 |
| 1979 | 5,779 | .6 | .7 | 10.5 | 11.8 |
Another critical aspect of the Black middle class is the role played by the government. In general, the state has been the major agent in the development of middle-class Blacks and their ideological orientation. Not only does this reflect the general trend of U.S. state monopoly capitalism, but it is central to understanding the particular history of Blacks since the Civil War, from the Freedmen's Bureau to affirmative action programs. The role of the government has been two-fold:
1.
The government as a source of jobs: This is key for the Black
professional, as well as all employed Blacks, in that over 15% of Black
workers were classified by the 1980 census as government workers. A major
turning point was the passage of the Fair Employment Practice Commission
bill that opened new opportunities during and after World War II. Hence,
the government - both directly (as employer) and indirectly (through
legislation regarding employment in general) - has been a source of jobs.
Statistics
in
a 1976 study for the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education by Harvard
University economist Richard Freeman reveal the importance of government
employment:
|
Over
all, about 51% of all male Black college graduates are employed by
governments - either federal, state, or local - compared to about
25% of college-educated white males. |
Freeman
also reports that 72% of Black women college graduates work for some
branch of government.
2. The government as a source of capital: Again the history of Black business activity can be seen in relation to government action. The great fiasco of the Freedmen's Bank during Reconstruction is an example, but the government has really been involved since the Nixon administration (1968-1974) with special legislation and executive guidelines to channel both public and private funds into the hands of Black entrepreneurs. While the majority of businesses started by Blacks may be independent of direct government intervention, it appears that a majority of those that are successful are helped with funds (grants, loans, etc.) and/ or technical assistance.
A
critical factor is investment capital for Black businesses. In 1983 the
U.S. Government Small Business Administration made $29.2 million in loans
to minority businesses, and $205 million in loan guarantees. However, this
is quite small when one considers the support by the federal government
for large corporations. Black Enterprise sums up the problem in the
early 1980s:
|
The
fundamental problem of minority business is the
lack of access to capital - and proper funding when capital
is available. The Reagan Administration has declared its intention
of getting out of the direct lending process and limiting its
support to loan guarantees. This avoids the basic issue of capital
formation in a black community where a middle class capable of
accumulating wealth for investment is still in its formative stages. |
THE FUTURE OF THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS
There is now a definite consolidation of the Black middle class on the basis of economic resources. However, most of the economic activity is marginal and directly linked to a segregated Black community as the consumer market. This is particularly true for smaller businesses. Otherwise, governmental policies (affirmative action and policies to support minority contracts) have served as a foundation and source of capital and jobs. The future of the Black middle class is based on answers to several questions: Will the segregated market of the Black community continue to exist? Can Black businesses and professionals sell their products and services to whites? Will the government remain a source of jobs and capital?
The other side of the story returns us to the issue of status. In the urban experience, the Black middle class more than ever has developed a social process of creating illusion to maintain high status privilege. Frazier is at his best on this subject. The second half of Black Bourgeoisie is entitled "The World of Make Believe." He states:
|
This
world of make-believe, to be sure, is a reflection of the values of
American society, but it lacks the economic basis that would give it
roots in the world of reality. In escaping into a world of
make-believe, middle-class Negroes have rejected both
identification with the Negro and his traditional culture. Through
delusions of wealth and power they have sought identification with
the white America which continues to reject them. But these
delusions leave them frustrated because they are unable to escape
from the emptiness and futility of their existence. |
There
is no doubt that the Black middle class tries to mimic the ruling class
in this society. This is the meaning of various Black colleges claiming to
be the "Black Harvard," or the way social and fraternal
organizations consume luxuries in order to achieve status when they don't
have the material equality rooted in class terms. This pattern of delusion
seems to be increasing rather than decreasing due to the changing demand
for Black labor. When Black colleges were founded, there was the need for
skilled labor and managers to rule over the Black community. Now that the
supply of such people has started to exceed demand, particularly in this
period of an economic downturn and political crisis, the Black middle
class continues its antics of conspicuous consumption and desperately
seeks status to maintain privilege.
The Black middle class has been a dynamic sector of the Black community, but this dynamism must be understood as having a dual character. Given the relative advantage of having more education, economic resources, and the status resources to make dealing with white people easier, the Black middle class acted as Black leadership whenever the Black community was threatened by white people. During the rural period and early city life, this remained true. In fact, because it too was oppressed by racism, this Black middle class had its own reasons for providing militant leadership. This will be demonstrated in Chapters 14, 15, and 16.
During
the slave and rural period, the Black middle class was potentially a
revolutionary class because its own class interests were consistent with
the overall desire by Blacks to destroy the system of racism and
oppression. Further, it was the Black middle who provided the professional
services and retail shopping within the Black community. There were also
psychological benefits to the Black community in that one Black person
doing well was shared by all - middle class advancement of a few was good
for "race pride."
However,
as the few Black businesses grew, they often became the same as other
large businesses paying their workers low wages. Further, the recent
transformation of the Black professional has meant, that the government
has a large number of Blacks managing the apparatus of welfare and social
control. In this way the Black middle
class has become an instrument for government and business to control the
Black community.
This is the main political tension that currently exists for the Black middle class: to lead the Black struggle against racism or to serve the corporate/government interests by controlling the masses of Black people. It seems obvious that part of the answer rests with the objective economic basis of the Black middle class. "Whoever pays the piper calls the tune!" On the other hand, the very survival of the Black middle class depends upon its willingness to include the entire Black community when it prepares to fight (either to win more gains or in defense from racist attacks) because only with Black unity can a fight against racism be won. The study of this dynamic process is an important part of Black Studies.
KEY CONCEPTS
| Black capitalism/ | Middle class | |
| Monopoly capitalism | Professions | |
| Class/Power | Sole proprietorship vs. | |
| Farm ownership | corporations | |
| Free Blacks (freedmen) | Status/Prestige | |
| Higher education | Upward vs. downward mobility |
STUDY
QUESTIONS
1.
Discuss the origins and historical development of the Black middle class
over the three main periods of the Afro-American experience (slave, rural,
and urban).
2.
What is "Black capitalism"? How is it differentiated from
monopoly capitalism in the United States today?
3.
What are similarities and differences between the Black middle class and
the masses of working-class Black people?
4. What historical role has the Black middle class played in the Black liberation struggle, and what contribution can it make today?
SUPPLEMENTARY
READINGS
1. Stephen Birmingham, Certain People: America's Black Elite., Boston: Little, Brown and Company 1977.
2.
Black Enterprise Editors, "The Top 100 Black Businesses:
Annual Report." Black Enterprise [Every June].
3.
James E. Blackwell, Mainstreaming Outsiders: The Production of Black
Professionals. Bayside: General Hall, 1981.
4.
George Davis and Glegg Watson, Black Life in Corporate America.
Garden City: Anchor Press, 1982.
5.
Richard B. Freeman, Black Elite: The New Market for Higher Educated
Black Americans. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.