Black Middle-class In The Post-civil Rights Era

The booming of black middle class represents the upward social mobility in African American society in the post-Civil Rights Era(since the year of 1965).Based on correspondent theories and methodologies of Sociology,this paper focuses on the studies of African American society in the late years of 20~thh century(1965-2000)and takes black middle class of the post-Civil Rights Era as research target,aiming to explore the nature of this class,its features and tendencies in social mobility and the hidden pushing forces of its booming.The black middle class is a class of hierarchical stratification,diversity and contradiction,but its members get conformity in cultural values and in cognition on class,racial and ethnic identities.Its booming benefits from the era,including the new trends in American domestic politics and policies,the transition in African American politics,the black social movements and political thoughts and so on,all of which have pushed the group forward to get progress in politics,economy,occupation,education,life style and habitation.However,the“two-ness”rooted in the soul of black people also causes the duality in their social status quo and the gaps between the black and white middle classes.History of the black middle class reflects the historical and contemporary features of their social mobility and their fragility as well.Even so,the group has kept its upward mobility under the forces from capitalism,American public policies,racism and African American society and the forces of black middle class cultural values.Focused on the subjective forces behind the social mobility of black middle class,i.e.the cultural values of black middle class,this paper analyzes the positive influences of its components like middle class cultural values,African American traditional culture and Black Nationalist thoughts,then put out the thesis--the black middle class cultural values have aroused great agency among African Americans and promoted the upward social mobility of the black middle class,and they are also important components of black leadership.The black middle class aims to construct their cultural leadership through spreading and practicing their cultural values via individual models,the African American families,communities and the African American cultural industries.During the process,the black intelligentsia is supposed to act as important leaders and supervisors.Representing the political and cultural rights of different interests groups,the Hip-Hop Generation,the black women,the new black conservatives,the black liberal intellects and the black liberation theologists have controversies on the black middle class'constructing its cultural leadership,which expose the major problems and challenges the black middle class has to face,that is,how to achieve balance on issues of class,gender and race.This paper holds that black intelligentsia has to get full and objective cognition on the black crisis and the economic system of American capitalism;meanwhile,they should focus on the needs of different classes,genders and races,and help to realize the independence and democracy of African America culture.Only in this way could they play the crucial role of leaders and supervisors in the construction of cultural leadership of black middle class.