According to the predictions of Benjamin Bowser, the African American middle class could completely disappear in as little as 20 years. Bowser, chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Services at California State University, East Bay, spoke on April 10 about his recent book "The Black Middle Class: Social Mobility – and Vulnerability," in the Kirner-Johnson Red Pit at Hamilton. The former president of the Association of Black Sociologists has written extensively on race, ethnic relations and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Bowser showed with graphs and statistics that the African American middle class is far less present than the white middle class in America, yet he noted that neither group is thriving. Nonetheless, the black middle class has grown greatly since the 1940s. This happened not because of the civil rights movement and desegregation, but because when employment increases significantly overall, it improves even for the very bottom. Still, the African American middle class has many qualities that make it distinct, according to Bowser. The black middle class is the canary because of ideology of race. Bowser believes that the term "race" was coined by colonizers in early America in order to obscure class. North and South Carolina passed legislation specifically saying those of African ancestry were Negro slaves, whiles those of European ancestry were white, believing that "race" would prevent Africans and Europeans from uniting against them. It is not so much African American culture that hurts the black middle class, but what the upper middle class society wants to do with African Americans. Ultimately, Bowser believes the lack of a successful middle class is evidence that racism is alive in America.
To Bowser's knowledge, black Americans have yet to enter the upper class, and Italians, Greeks, and many other minorities still haven't really joined the class of wealth yet either. Black people may drive nice cars, and wear nice clothes, but what they have is not what Bowser would call wealth, although he noted that the average white American isn't worth that much either. Bowser has not met one African American who has enough net financial assets to live six months without working. The average net financial assets for white married couples are $1150 and zero for black married couples, whether statisticians control for age or not. For white-collar workers, the wealth gap is even wider, as the average net worth is $8680 for whites, and still zero for blacks.
Bowser joked that he chose to live in California so his family wouldn't hit him up for money all the time, although his wife's family is from the Bay area. Kidding aside, Bowser views it as a serious problem that black families consistently share and split their assets amongst each other. In order to become wealthy, people must maintain assets as large lump sums that get passed down to subsequent generations via trusts, without spending the principal. An upperclass requires this build up of intergenerational wealth, and black workers simply haven't been there long enough. Bowser knew a professor who left Cornell in order to manage the family trust, but can't think of any black people who have done this. Not Jackie Robinson, not Madame CJ Walker, because none of them have had the knowledge of how to invest in trusts and the banks and accounting firms standing behind them. Bowser is interested to see whether Oprah and Bill Cosby will be able to leave a legacy of wealth via trust funds, or if their assets will be split into oblivion by their families.
More important for Bowser is the threat that the black middle class will continue to deteriorate and ultimately collapse over the course of the next 20 years, and the white middle class may follow suit. In France, Bowser observed a European middle class much more sensitive and aware of its vulnerability than the American middle class, regardless of race. Europeans, according to Bowser, realize that the formidable number of engineers, accountants, and other workers being trained in India and China are increasingly able to offer labor comparable to their own at much lower costs.
Workers from globalizing economies make the American middle class look "overpriced and redundant", yet the press leads people to believe that outsourcing is an issue that will only affect the working class, if they address the threat at all. Bowser is concerned by the fact that 30 years from now, there will be more Chinese people speaking English than people who speak English as a first language.
In the future absence of a middle class, there will be no one to say "this is the way to get out of the underclass, people, just stay out of jail, get an education, work hard, and you'll be just fine". If all of the underclass woke up tomorrow and demanded an education, the system wouldn't be able to handle it. Bowser contended that because of economic "backsliding" the issue of race is more alive and well now than it was in 1960. At least in 1960 people came up from the South and found jobs where they could make a living. Now there is no "North", there is no way out of the ghetto. Bowser is fascinated by "how the lid has been kept on the box," and believes there would be mass riots every summer, were it not for the ubiquity of drugs.
Recovering addicts are often quick to ask "where can I get a job? Where can I go to school?" When they are painfully told that because they were drug addicts it s unlikely that they can get jobs, and they have little chances of getting back into school, they often lose hope and return to drugs. Some people quit for religious religion, but for the most part the lack of necessary possibility of upward mobility leaves people little reason to quit.
In closing, Bowser stressed that "America must pass really forward thinking national policy soon", if we are going to save the black middle class, not to mention the education, reputation, and global worth of American workers. The lecture was sponsored by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.
--by Mariam Ballout '10
