Getting it Wrong: Class Commentary
In advance of Michelle Obama's address to the Democratic National Convention last night, Jezebel published a post forecasting it's impact titled: "Michelle Obama At The DNC: An Opportunity To Define Barack, The Black Middle Class." The pull quote follows:
"Michelle Obama benefits from the fact that while there are many stereotypes of blacks in America, there are almost no preconceived notions of the Black middle class."
Now, problem with this statement is that it's wrong. There are preceonceived notions held by whites and Blacks about the Black middle class, which has been defined on a few occasions, most prominently and enduringly in 1957 by E. Franklin Frazier in his aptly titled, "Black Bourgeoisie," found, pre-street lit, on many street vendors table alongside "Isis Papers" and other the "Mis-Education of the Negro." That's all to say that it's no obscure book.
What makes talking about Black social stratification so difficult in this moment, is not that we haven't since we touched down on these shores been a multifarious people, it's that so many uninformed people dominate the discourse. Charge that to a persistent lack of barriers to entry to Black societal and cultural criticism within and without the race. In the words of that network I so despise, we can do better.
Photo Credit: Henry Clay Anderson (1965)
Tags: Black Middle Class, Obama
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