Pag« 8 Portland Observar October 23.1980
Has the Black middle class abandoned the poor?
_ .
By Joel Drey fuss
NEW YORK - They are shallow,
callous, conspicuous consumers.
They could care less about their
poor relatives. They are not in
terested in the political process and
decline to use their political clout.
When they take a stand on issues,
they always look out for themselves
and alienate potential allies.
This portrait o f the Black middle
class is getting increasing attention
in the mass media. In television,
magazines and newspapers, a deep
divide has been drawn recently bet
ween the success of Blacks who join
the mainstream and those who still
languish in poverty.
A t the same time, middle class
Black were viewed as a buffer be
tween the Black poor and the white
m a jo rity . Blacks who succeeded
were held up as models for the poor
to emulate.
But as white disillusionment with
the Black middle class came to a
head during last summer's Miami
rio t when it was realized that
middle class Blacks have little con
trol over the Black poor and make
no impact upon urban problems
such as crime and umemployment.
In a recent article fo r the New
York Times Sunday magazine,
white social scientist Carl Gershman
blamed many o f the ills o f the Black
poor on “ a new class o f Black
p o litic a l leaders and federally
funded anti-poverty workers who
became.. .power brokers between
the government and the Black poor.
These workers had a stake in pre
serving the underclass as a political
base from which they could threaten
— and extract concessions from
white society,” he wrote.
A year ago, another Times
magazine cover story lambasted the
Black m iddle class fo r its con
sumerism and suggested that suc
cessful Blacks had more in common
w ith the white m iddle class than
with the Black poor.
The argument that the objectives
o f the Black middle class no longer
serve the interests o f the Black poor
is useful fo r a broad variety o f
p o litic a l groups, from
neo
conservatives to liberals.
The change o f heart has its motive
in the fear of competition. Not only
do middle class Blacks compete for
jobs; they also challenge the
political views o f the white intellec
tual class, whose influence c o r
porate and government policies.
White intellectuals now converge
in the belief that racism is no longer
a major issue. They cite the work of
U C LA economist Thomas Sowell
and University o f Chicago sociolo
gist W illiam J. Wilson, both Black,
who argue that Blacks have divided
along two economic paths: one with
m obility for the middle class, the
other a dead end future o f menial
jobs for the poor.
Few ‘ ‘ experts”
have ever
bothered to ask middle class Blacks
how they view themselves. Thus a
recent p oll o f Black Enterprise
magazine readers (with a median in
come o f $25,000) is especially
revealing. The p o ll showed that
three out o f four respondents did
not believe that "ra c is m is less
prevalent than it was a decade ago.”
And 95 percent said they believed
that “ whites harbor some form of
racism towards Blacks.” They
clearly have not joined whites in
turning their backs on the issue o f
racism.
Another common white criticism
o f middle class Blacks is that they
lack broad-ranging p o litic a l in
terests and that the p o litic a l
positions they do take are self-
serving. The Black Enterprise poll
suggests otherwise. Nine out o f 10
readers polled oppose "high unem
ployment as a tradeoff to control in
flation.” Like the majority o f their
white counterparts, they express
concern that America has lost its
m ilita ry superiority to the Soviet
Union. But 58 percent believe "that
some o f the money fo r defense
should be channeled fo r social
programs.”
One reason fo r this continued
support o f social programs is the
finding that many members o f the
Black m iddle class are barely
removed from poverty themselves.
Four out o f ten o f the magazine
readers had a relative or fa m ily
member on public assistance. A
similar study o f the Black middle
class published in
1979 in
Psychology Today found that 85
percent o f the sample came from
working class origins, and that only
15 percent were second generation
middle class.
In other Black Enterprise fin d
ings, almost 77 percent favored a
i
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pull-out
o f A American
s Z" from
ooutn Atnca and 85 perceant sup
ported more Black involvement in
Africa liberation struggles. On the
Middle East conflict, nearly a third
o f Black Enterprise readers sided
w ith the Arabs, 8.4 supported
Israel, ad 57.9 percent favored
neither side.
A majority said they understood
the SALT II issues, felt they were
affected by Watergate and over
w helm ingly opposed President
Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon.
These studies suggest a very dif-
é ferent
r* n t reality for
A
__ middle
Ja,
the LI I Black
class than the one currently offered
by the white intellectua l m ain
stream. Middle class and working
class Blacks (the majority o f whom
vote) remain solidly committed to
the p o litics o f compassion that
many white intellectuals have aban
doned. They believe that social
progress is possible, that govern
ment intervention is necessary to
prod the free enterprise system, and
that good relations with the Third
W orld w ill eventually pay o ff for
America. Many Blacks have also
decided that a re d is trib u tio n o f
a
a
a
m a
m
■ . .
.
■
a
wealth is the only solution to
economic inequity.
In trying to avoid being used as
pawns by the ideological left and
right, Blacks face tremendous d if
ficulties as they attempt to develop
strategies for advancement. W ithin
the Black community, some o f the
interesting - and most ignorned -
intellectuals have begun to look out
side the country for solutions to
their problems. They see parallels
between the under-development o f
the T hird W orld and the under
development o f America’s Harlem.
Some believe an independent
Black economic base must be
developed again with the short-term
intervention o f government. Few
believe that all the problems o f the
underclass w ill be solved by Black
capitalism. But they also understand
that financially independent Black
institutions could be powerful ad
vocates o f the Black poor.
Rather than reject all government
programs across the board, they
would prefer to strengthen the ones
that have worked like Head Start
and Food Stamps, and to develop
new ones for specific needs.
The relative powerlessness o f the
Black middle class is due largely to
its small size, and its almost non
existent economic clout. The impact
o f middle class Black leaders in the
1960s was based on a consensus of
white liberal support. The problem
in the 1980s is for the Blacks to find
ways o f leveraging the m a jo rity
when their former allies have gone
to protect their own interests.
By refusing to concede that all is
well, middle class Blacks continue to
serve the interests o f the poor and to
challenge the convergence o f main
stream ideologies on the m ain
tenance of the status quo.
COPYRIGHT PNS 1980
SENIORS
OPPOSE
P.U.D.
Oregon State Council
for Senior Citizens
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