Blue-chip Black : race, class, and status in the new Black middle class / Karyn R. Lacy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lacy, Karyn R., 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Social conditions--1975---Case studies.

African Americans.

African Americans--Race identity--Case studies.

Middle class--United States--Case studies.

Middle class.

Social status--United States--Case studies.

Social status.

African Americans--Race identity.

Social conditions.

African Americans--Social conditions.

United States--Race relations--Case studies.

United States.

Race relations.

African Americans--Washington Region--Social conditions.

African Americans--Race identity--Washington Region.

Middle class--Washington Region.

Social status--Washington Region.

Washington Region--Race relations.

Washington Region.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xx, 281 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2007]

Summary:

As Karyn R. Lacy's innovative work in the suburbs of Washington, DC, reveals, there is a continuum of middle-classness among blacks, ranging from lower-middle class to middle-middle class to upper-middle class. Focusing on the latter two, Lacy explores an increasingly important social and demographic group: middle-class blacks who live in middle-class suburbs where poor blacks are not present. These "blue-chip black" suburbanites earn well over fifty thousand dollars annually and work in predominantly white professional environments. Lacy examines the complicated sense of identity that individuals in these groups craft to manage their interactions with lower-class blacks, middle-class whites, and other middle-class blacks as they seek to reap the benefits of their middle-class status.

Contents:

1 Defining the Post-Integration Black Middle Classes 21

2 Social Organization in Washington's Suburbia 51

3 Public Identities: Managing Race in Public Spaces 72

4 Status-Based Identities: Protecting and Reproducing Middle-Class Status 114

5 Race- and Class-Based Identities: Strategic Assimilation in Middle-Class Suburbia 150

6 Suburban Identities: Building Alliances with Neighbors 185

Appendix A Recipe for Studying the Black Middle Class 227.

Notes:

"The George Gund Foundation imprint in African American studies"--P. facing t.p.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-268) and index.

ISBN:

9780520251151

0520251156

9780520251168

0520251164

OCLC:

71004064

Online:

Publisher description