Problems of Black Politics

A complex class context underlies the changes in black American politics of the last twenty years. Today’s black stratification comprises sharply different classes—a coping stratum made up of blue- and white-collar workers, professionals and managers, business people and wealthy entertainers, and a noncoping stratum made up of weak working-class families, hardcore poor families, and an underclass. This represents a disaggregation of the rather simple black stratification of the 1900-1...