Beyond work: elite Black women’s tensions with middle-class status

ABSTRACT

This article examines how elite Black women determine their class status in the era of wealth inequality. While previous literature focuses on labor to theorize Black middle-class power, homeownership, debt, and consumerism are meaningful amid the race and gender wealth gaps. This paper uses data from 24 interviews with Black, college-educated, married, homeowning women in a Southern state to explore the class attitudes and economic indicators participants use to claim middle-class status. These findings contribute to our understanding of how the Black middle-class navigates their economic privilege and precarity beyond employment and reveals tensions between the Black middle-class and Black elite.

KEYWORDS:

• Black middle-class
• Black feminism
• wealth inequality
• debt
• race, class, gender
• Black elite

Disclosure statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and my ethical obligation as a researcher, I am reporting that no financial interests in a company that may be affected by the research reported in the enclosed paper.

Ethics statement

This study involves human subjects and was approved and deemed exempt by the institutional review board at the University of Texas at Austin on May 21, 2021. Reference number 00001254.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants, [P2CHD042849 and T32HD007081], Population Research Center, awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.