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Class formations

Competing forms of black middle-class identity

Drew University, USA, kmoore{at}drew.edu

Although some scholars continue to debate the relative significance of race versus class, others have argued for an analysis that underscores the interlocking nature of these stratification systems. This research builds upon the intersectionality perspective to investigate the importance of culture in understanding racial and class stratification and identity. By describing a racialized class structure, this research challenges race scholars to rethink the meanings of socioeconomic class. It also identifies ways in which class shapes the articulation of a black racial identity. The article presents two competing forms of black middle-class identity (multi-class and middle-class minded) in the USA that highlight the intersections of race, class and culture. The data is based on a three-year community ethnography, including interviews with 35 residents. Results show the centrality of morality and a racial ideology of resistance as prominent resistance strategies of action with a black middle-class habitus. This article describes two competing forms of black middle-class identity and the tensions that emerge between them. It concludes with a discussion of the necessity for a more emic understanding of class stratification.

Key Words: African-Americans • Black middle class • culture • habitus • racial identity • stratification

Ethnicities, Vol. 8, No. 4, 492-517 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1468796808097075


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