Blue-Chip Black: Race, Class, and Status in the New Black Middle Class Book Review
About the Author Karyn Lacy is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and the Center for Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan. She focuses her work on African American studies, race and ethnicity, and the black middle-class. Her book Blue-Chip Black received the Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities in 2008.
Overview
Blue-Chip Black reveals a comparative exploration of black middle-class life in three distinct middle-class suburban communities in the Washington, D.C. area. The first community Lacy focuses on is Lakeview, Michigan, which is …show more content…
Lacy begins her first line of the introduction with the stark comment referring to blacks trying to fit into the middle and upper-class world of whites made by one of her interviewees, Andrea Creighton, in which she says, “They’re trying to be like the whites instead of being who they are.” (Lacy, 2007, Pg. 1) Right from the start, Lacy lets the audience know that not all middle-class blacks wish to blend into the white …show more content…
The racial composition of a family’s suburban neighborhood provides a unique set of chances and challenges for black parents as they work on shaping their own and their children’s black middle-class identity. Just as the people of the black middle-class try to set themselves apart from the black lower-class and the white middle-class, there are times when they are aligned with their white counterparts. In Prince George’s County, the dismal economic condition unites black and white residents together on key issues such the troubled school system. Black middle-class parents’ believe their expectations clash with the school’s definition of education for their children. “Black and white residents in upscale Sherwood Park avoid the public schools (with the exception of special magnet programs)” (Lacy, 2007, Pg. 19) Riverton residents however, want to focus on improving the public school system from within. Most schools tend to maintain a view of blacks in general as being disadvantaged and assume that black children are unable to learn and comprehend as much as white children. Lacy’s section on the black parents’ view of public schooling provides only a taste of