In the United States, the black middle class consists of African Americans who have middle-class status within the American class structure. It is an occurrence that predominately began to develop in the early 1960s, when the ongoing African-American Civil Rights Movement led to the outlawing of de jure racial segregation. The gains accrued by the Civil Rights Era is strongly correlated with the emergence of a new black middle class.
Despite modest increases in wealth, the black middle class still faces societal and institutional forms of racism and discrimination, which constrains the upward mobility of African Americans. These societal and institutional forms of racism and discrimination are reflected in the racial wealth gap, housing discrimination, residential segregation, the achievement gap, and more. Moreover, the historical implications of slavery and marginalization has made race a proxy for disadvantage, which many African Americans face even despite achieving professional and educational success.
Read more about Black Middle Class: Definition of Middle Class, History of Black Middle Class in The United States, Challenges of The Black Middle Class, African Immigrants and The Black Middle Class, Poverty For African Americans
Famous quotes containing the words middle class, black, middle and/or class:
“Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses!”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“Our inherent human charity and our religious beliefs will be taxed to the limit. No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“You can always tell a Midwestern couple in Europe because they will be standing in the middle of a busy intersection looking at a wind-blown map and arguing over which way is west. European cities, with their wandering streets and undisciplined alleys, drive Midwesterners practically insane.”
—Bill Bryson (b. 1951)
“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)