Black Picket Fences : Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class
This book is the product of a three-year ethnographic study of Groveland, a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Sociologist Patillo-McCoy challenges the myth that a thriving black middle class has relocated to white suburban neighborhoods, abandoning the black underclass in inner-city wastelands. She demonstrates that the majority of the black middle class are living in black communities, which encompass poor black neighborhoods. As a result, a vulnerable, underemployed black middle class has to contend with inadequate public schools and high crime and poverty rates. Patillo-McCoy focuses on Groveland's multigenerational families, primarily its youth, and neighborhood networks, concluding that the future advancement of African Americans will require that the black middle class be factored into the debate on policies regarding affirmative action, segregation, and poverty. For specialized collections in African American studies, urban studies, and sociology.ASherri Barnes, Long Island Univ. Lib., BrooklynCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.