Blue-Chip Black: Race, Class, and Status in the New Black Middle Class

by Karyn R. Lacy

As Karyn R. Lacy's innovative work in the suburbs of Washington, DC, reveals, there is a continuum of middle-classness among blacks, ranging from lower-middle class to middle-middle class to upper-middle class. Focusing on the latter two, Lacy explores an increasingly important social and demographic middle-class blacks who live in middle-class suburbs where poor blacks are not present. These "blue-chip black" suburbanites earn well over fifty thousand dollars annually and work in predominantly white professional environments. Lacy examines the complicated sense of identity that individuals in these groups craft to manage their interactions with lower-class blacks, middle-class whites, and other middle-class blacks as they seek to reap the benefits of their middle-class status.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Race, Class, The United States Of America, Anthropology, Read For School

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

IQ "It is possible that blacks who earn more than fifty thousand dollars annually process racial discrimination through a different lens than lower-middle class blacks do." (111)

BLUE-CHIP BLACK is a somewhat outdated but nevertheless groundbreaking sociological study of the Black upper middle class (or elite Black middle class as Lacy sometimes refers to them). It is an academic text and unfortunately reads like one when it comes to how dry the narrative is but I really enjoyed reading the experiences of the participants. I also really appreciate Lacy surveying the Black middle class with the nuance long denied when it comes to Black people and class, as she herself notes "this is the first study to focus specifically on the set of distinct identities that different groups of middle-class blacks construct and use in their everyday lives in both the public sphere and their suburban communities" (6). having recently read BLACK PICKET FENCES I appreciated the distinctions Lacy drew between that book and her own. She points out some notable differences that I had also picked up on, mainly that Patillo doesn't actually focus on the entire Black middle class but rather the lower and middle middle class. And from my own firsthand experiences I can say many of the stories from the adults in this book rang true or authentic to my own experience or that of those I knew especially given my proximity to DC. I also think it's noteworthy that Lacy mentions how diverse the suburbs are becoming, even though this book is from 2007 that's something that we know still holds true in a lot of areas today. That being said it is worth noting that this book is only about the suburban Black upper middle class, I would love to see a follow up done about upper middle class Black people who live in cities.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dated now (published in 2007), but still useful. It's a sociology text and about the first three chapters are sociology lit review (skip if you just want to get to the interviews, which, to me, are the most interesting part). Hearing from middle-class blacks in three DC area suburbs is what drew me to the book. What are their experiences living in majority-black suburbs (these don't exist in anywhere I've ever lived)? What was their perspective on why they chose to live where they lived when they had so many options to choose from? A powerful endorsement for wanting to live among "our kind of people," which is actually a reference to a 1999 book by Lawrence Graham (definitely worth reading if you wan to know what life is like for wealthy northeastern blacks).

[DAVAUR · Rating 5 out of 5]

This world-building is so terrific