On Being Black And Middle Class Essay

Reflecting on his own experience, Mangcu has also observed that although he shared the privileges of being a professor at UCT: Class in racialised contexts is experienced as an uncomfortable and shifting identifier.Despite democratisation and the growth of the black middle class, it is premature to talk about the growing importance of class over race.

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For this reason, measures of wealth or earning capacity can easily mislead, especially given the number of financial obligations members of this group take on as they attempt to overcome the past in their wider families.

These demands are reflected in high debts experienced by the black middle class.

Being black and middle class in South Africa isn’t as straightforward as it might seem.

In the media, the more affluent members of the black middle class are often portrayed as conspicuous consumers, so-called “Black Diamonds” who earn between R16,000 and R50,000 per month, have a tertiary qualification, a white-collar job and are under the age of 44.

This confirms that the consumption of the black middle class is strongly linked to the need to correct an historical asset deficit.

The high debt that accompanies this, coupled with high rates of retrenchment and increasing unemployment, puts the new black middle class in a perilous position.

This continues to influence earning power, wealth creation and the reluctance to self-identify as middle class.

Another reason many blacks are reluctant to describe themselves as middle class is that it’s a confusing place to be: often you are not different enough to be seen as middle class at home (black township or rural village) nor are you white enough to be middle class in terms of full access to privilege that defines the white middle class experience.

This class was able to earn a social, political, and economic space despite the persistence of racial prejudice and discrimination.

These processes of upward social mobility of the black population in Colombia have played out in ways specific to the particular regional, economic, social, and political contexts in which they emerged.