Black Picket Fences, Second Edition

Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class

Mary Pattillo

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780226021195
• eBook ISBN: 9780226021225
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: African American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1999, Mary Pattillo's Black Picket Fences explores an American demographic group too often ignored by both scholars and the media: the black middle class. Nearly fifteen years later, this book remains a groundbreaking study of a group still underrepresented in the academic and public spheres. The result of living for three years in "Groveland," a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Black Picket Fences explored both the advantages the black middle class has and the boundaries they still face. Despite arguments that race no longer matters, Pattillo showed a different reality, one where black and white middle classes remain separate and unequal.

 Stark, moving, and still timely, the book is updated for this edition with a new epilogue by the author that details how the neighborhood and its residents fared in the recession of 2008, as well as new interviews with many of the same neighborhood residents featured in the original. Also  included is a new foreword by acclaimed University of Pennsylvania sociologist Annette Lareau.

 

INDEX

Aalbers, Manuel, 248

Abrahams, Roger, 265–66n7

Adelman, Robert, 256, 258

Adidas shoes, 151, 156–57, 165

adolescence. See youth

adult children, use of term, 53–57

advertising

—geared to African Americans, 147–48, 151–52, 159, 166, 280n4

—“Hare Jordan,” 164

—negative effects of, 279nn1–2

—See also consumerism

affirmative action

—assault on, 1, 21, 44

—occupations affected by, 210–11

—relevance to black middle class, 214–15

—social class and, 19–20, 215–17

African Americans

—central concerns for, 18–19

—gains for, 210

—language as connector for, 9–10

—marketing geared to, 147–48, 151–52, 159, 166, 280n4

—research focus on poor, 1, 2, 20–21, 206–9

—residential preferences of, 270n14

—See also black middle class; black urban ghettos; culture; role models

Agius Vallejo, Jody 230

Alba, Richard D., 29, 215, 260

Alcorn State University, 22–23

Anderson, Elijah, 92–94, 167

antipoverty programs

—benefits of, 217–18

—implications for black middle class, 30

Arthur, Lucille (pseud.), 53–54, 236

Arthur, Sarita (pseud.)

—in dramatic skits, 134–35

—on gang members, 137

—as marginal to gangsta style, 138–39

—on school, 134

—on shootings, 136

—thrilled by gangsta style, 134–37

Ashkinaze, Carol, 256

assets, racial gaps in, 95, 251, 264n2, 275n1. See also black middle class: resources and strategies of

Atlanta (Ga.), racial and class geography of, 25, 250, 255–56, 264–65n4

“Baby Jordan” (nickname), 157–58, 163

Baker, Charisse (pseud.)

—background of, 94

—family and friends of, 100–102, 104, 113

—free time of, 109–10

—on gangs, 76, 85, 144

—hopes of, 61–62, 114

—life since 1999, 233

—positive factors for, 115–16

—rebelliousness of, 110–11

—resources of, 103

—on so...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• One. The Black Middle Class: Who, When, and Where?
• Two. The Making of Groveland
• Three. Generations through a Changing Economy
• Four. Neighborhood Networks and Crime
• Five. Growing Up in Groveland
• Six. In a Ghetto Trance
• Seven. Nike’s Reign
• Eight. William “Spider” Waters, Jr.: Straddling Two Worlds
• Nine. Typical Terri Jones
• Conclusion
• Appendix A. Research Method
• Appendix B. Groveland Neighborhood Characteristics
• Epilogue
• Notes
• References
• Index