Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class

by Mary Pattillo, Annette Lareau (Foreword)

First published in 1999, Mary Pattillo’s Black Picket Fences explores an American demographic group too often ignored by both scholars and the media: the black middle class. Nearly fifteen years later, this book remains a groundbreaking study of a group still underrepresented in the academic and public spheres. The result of living for three years in “Groveland,” a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, Black Picket Fences explored both the advantages the black middle class has and the boundaries they still face. Despite arguments that race no longer matters, Pattillo showed a different reality, one where black and white middle classes remain separate and unequal.

Stark, moving, and still timely, the book is updated for this edition with a new epilogue by the author that details how the neighborhood and its residents fared in the recession of 2008, as well as new interviews with many of the same neighborhood residents featured in the original. Also included is a new foreword by acclaimed University of Pennsylvania sociologist Annette Lareau.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Race, African American, History, American History, Economics

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

Reviews

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pattillo is one of the favorite authors of our instructors. We have read from her works several times. She grew up middle class and wanted to answer the question why did she finish school and become a professional and why did too many of her classmates go down a more dire road? He answer is the stark differences between the white and black middle classes. The black middle class still has close ties to the lower class. It's an eye opening look at what is gong in America.

[Brady Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a roundup review I did at the end of 2013 on NextCity.


What I wrote about this book:

Black Picket Fences is a reissue. Pattillo completed her research for the first volume in 1999, and recently revisited her subject cohort in order to issue this update, with an extended afterword where she catches us up with some of its characters.

Pattillo, a sociologist, takes as her subject the Groveland neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Her original volume dealt with the pressure of white racism to keep upwardly mobile blacks out of white areas, which meant that the African-American middle class stayed intermingled with low-income people. As such, middle-class black children grow up in a milieu where the temptation to engage in destructive activities is considerably more acute and multi-faceted than it is on white children, making it less likely for black children to reproduce their parents’ success. Or, as Pattillo puts it, “The in-between position of the black middle class sets up certain crossroads for its youth.”

No doubt many sociologists would quibble with some part of that statement. The book is powerful, though, in the way that Pattillo carefully balances her qualitative fieldwork with supplemental observations from quantitative literature on the same subject. Readers will also appreciate the way she doesn’t mince words. (“Liberals bumble when addressing these realities…”)

In her follow-up, though, we find that an interesting shift has taken place. In 1999 Pattillo argued that profound segregation in housing makes it harder for black children to build on their parents’ achievements. However, in the second edition we learn two things: That very few of the characters Pattillo followed in her fieldwork have taken the wrong road and, apparently, something really has started to shift. The numbers show that U.S. cities have become markedly less segregated than they were in 1999. Time will tell what that means. Hopefully, it’s a good sign for everyone.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

After moving to East Harlem and becoming surrounded by a decidedly different demographic than the Morningside Heights population, I wanted to find a book that would offer a modern appraisal of urban poverty and growth in primarily black America. After a brief Amazon search of well-recommended books, I came across Black Picket Fences which is a sociologist's case study of black middle class America, set in Groveland, a South Side Chicago suburb where 99% of the population is black. While Pattillo-McCoy lends authenticity to her interviewee's voices, profiling their ambitions, snares, and motivations, many of the potent relations shaping black America are absent from this volume. She notes how a disproportionate share of Groveland's young black males, despite growing up in middle class surroundings, will die from drug abuse or gang-related violence, or end up in jail. Still, we get no insight from her about policing or the relationships communities have with law and order, aside from informal governance that gangs like the Black Mobsters lend to select community functions. I'm certain that such material is more relevant to this narrative, especially to a sociologist who explores themes of violent attraction and mimicking, than her choice of Nike as a case study in urban culture. In sum, the book provided some new insights into black middle class America, but offered no empirical support for her arguments [observational study, only numbers referenced were for area-average household incomes]. I think this starts some conversations, but much of the substance has to be sought elsewhere.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

IQ "If the spatial incarnation of 'middle class' is actually 'suburban', then African Americans are less able to be middle class by virtue of a history and present of racist lending, rental and selling practices. If the cultural manifestation of 'middle class' includes only those who almost always speak Standard English, then African Americans-along with immigrant groups and some rural whites-are disadvantaged because segregation affects the degree of exposure to those who decide what English vernacular is acceptable. [...] The point in wading through this list of 'mainstream-isms' is to illustrate that if African Americans are less likely to measure up to the normative notion of 'middle class,' it has much to do with the barriers that they face to reaching such a status." (212-213)

BLACK PICKET FENCES is a foundational read for anyone in sociology or the curious thinker looking to better understand economic segregation and the intersection of class and race. I'm torn on rating academic texts because I don't have a master's degree but I do think this book could have been more compelling even as an academic text. There was often intellectual jargon used that was difficult to parse through. Furthermore there was never a concrete definition given for "middle class" and I found myself unconvinced that the neighborhoods she studied would be considered middle class today (they are unidentified), the way they were described made them sound lower middle class. I know there's never been concrete agreement around what constitutes middle class but when your book's very premise rests on an unnamed definition of said class that makes it harder to seriously engage with the content. But I may just be too close to the study at hand because my friends and family would describe themselves as Black middle class but they are realistically all over the spectrum of middle class and have very different experiences depending on where they fall. That being said I think this book is an excellent resource and should be a starting point for anyone looking into the Black middle class but we need more updated research because this is a topic that deserves further study.

[Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book to read if you want to better understand working / middle class African American culture. Written with a deep understanding and love for the community she documents, Pattillo's work is thoroughly researched and is an important resource for both "serious" scholars and the casual reader.

[DORIS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LIKE THIS BOOK.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an eye-opening account of a middle class, black neighborhood in suburban Chicago. Shows how the black middle class is closely tied with the lower class, moreso than in the white community. I enjoyed the first hand accounts from the citizens of Groveland. Important sociological work.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting study on the black middle class.

[Nakia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in college. I think I want to read it again. Gotta see if I ever sold it back or if it's on my bookshelf somewhere.

[Michelle Farley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I enjoyed this book, it seems a little dated now. I'd love to see an updated study of the same area of Chicago.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book from undergrad Sociology.