What Happened to the African-American Middle Class?
by Nathan Jones
Nathan A. Jones has a BA in Sociology (California State University, East Bay), an MA in Ethnic
Studies, (San Francisco State University), a TESOL Certification from Oxford House College
(Barcelona, Spain), an MFA in Creative Writing and English (Mills College), and a Certificate for the
Teaching of Post Secondary Reading (San Francisco State University). He is a poet, essayist, spoken
word artist, book publisher, musician, and the author of Revolutionary Erotica (2003), Black Man In
Europe (2005, 2008), and Excerpts From My Soul: Read Without Prejudice (2010). He has published
numerous articles, poems, and essays for online publications and is featured in a variety of poetry
anthologies. He has taught at Skyline College since 2010.
(1) Discuss your experiences during the most recent recession. Did it feel like a recession or a depression?
(2) What do you already know about the African-American experience in the U.S. from slavery to the
present day? How has this shaped the economic realities for African-Americans?
In 1931, James Truslow Adams coined the term “American Dream” in his book The Epic of
America. Since its inception, this theoretical and intangible ideology has plagued the American
psyche. Politicians invoke it and toss it around like a badge of honor, immigrants pursue it, and
despite tirelessly negative economic news, citizens embrace it like a mythical relic. This so-called
“American Dream” purports “that [the] dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and
fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” Unfortunately,
the myth of the “American Dream” feels more like a candid reality check of “dreams deferred” which
one can find in between the pages of the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma.
Millions of Americans have endured financial catastrophes in the recession since December
2007 and are rapidly continuing on a downward spiral. Many in the middle class are economically
brittle, barely able to preserve their lifestyle, and are disillusioned by the illusive “American Dream”.
However, the situation seems to be unbearably dire within the African-American community,
specifically. Due to a steady loss of jobs, homes in foreclosure, loss of 401Ks, loss of retirement plans,
and a lack of resources, many African-Americans who once enjoyed the spoils of a quasi-Cosbyesque
“standard of living” have been commandeered by a depressed economy, forcing them into poverty
and into homelessness in some cases. Is the African-American middle class experiencing a
“recession” or “depression” and if so, is it over?
According to Algernon Austin, the Director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on
Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, “The recession is not over for black folks.” In fact, the layoffs for
African-Americans are only the latest piece of unwarranted bad news for a struggling middle class. In
2007, the Brooking Institution found that fewer than one-third of blacks born to middle-class parents
went on to earn incomes greater than their parents, compared with more than two-thirds of whites
from the same income bracket. Regrettably, the foreclosure crisis secured, shattered and wiped out a
large section of a generation of African-American homeowners.
In 2004, the median net worth of white households was $134,280, compared with $13,450 for
African-American households, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by the Economic Policy
Institute. Within a five-year period, there was a decline in incomes earned by both ethnic groups. By
2009, the median net worth for white households had fallen 24 percent to $97,860; and the median net
worth for African-American households had fallen 83 percent to $2,170, according to the institute.
What will the history of America look like, as the reversal of fortune knocks at the door of
African-Americans who have fought hard to win economic success, which took decades to achieve,
just to see their efforts for a better life dissipate in a shaky economic system? How will the decimation
of the African-American middle class be justified, under the Obama Administration? What will be the
long-term effects on consumerism, if a sector of the populace has no purchasing power? Will AfricanAmericans once again, ask the questions that Langston Hughes posed, “what happens to a dream
deferred”? Can African-Americans really buy into the narrative of the so-called “American Dream”
or will the dream of a “quality of life” be found in the matrix of the American Dilemma? Poor people
do not have recessions, poor people have depressions.
(1) What is the author’s attitude towards the “American Dream”? Why does he feel this way? Does
this dream still exist for everyone?
(2) What is some of the evidence that Jones uses to support his thesis that African Americans are
suffering a depression rather than a recession? Which evidence do you think is most compelling
and why?
(1) If the trend described in the essay persists, what will happen if the African American middle class
disappears? How would this change the African-American community? What would be the larger
ramifications for our society as a whole?
(2) The Langston Hughes quote of the dream deferred is referenced twice in the essay. This quote comes from
the poem by the same name by Hughes. Read the poem and analyze how you feel it connects to the
arguments made in the essay and the larger African-American experience:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
--Langston Hughes