Notes
Slide Show
Outline
1
TURN IN AND PICK UP A PAPER TO/FROM YOUR TA
  • Curtis Mayfield, A New World Order


  • Listen to the lyrics and connect them to the issues being discussed in this course.  Music is one way that knowledge is transmitted and issues are discussed.  Do we always use music in this way?  Are we always conscious of what is happening to our minds when we listen to music?


  • We play music to focus and prepare for class.
2
AFRO 100

Class
    • The fundamental issue is: how do I feed and care for myself and my family?  How do I work or get resources, and how do I plan to maintain a good quality of life for now and in the future?  Or, was I born rich?
3
CLASS: two alternative approaches
  • Social Stratification
  • a.  Objective: a ranking of income, education, and occupation
  • b.  Subjective: a ranking of social status based on socio-cultural values
  • Power
  • a.  Objective: ownership and control of the
             means of production vs. labor
  • b.  Subjective: control of the ruling ideas
4
Max Weber
1864-1920
  • The systems of class, status and party are all at work.  The main issue is ones market position, social standing in the community, and role in the political process.
5
E. Franklin Frazier
1894-1962
  • The stratification of the Black population can be described best by income, educational, and occupational status.  In addition, the cultural values of different classes have to be considered.
6
Karl Marx
1818-1883
  • Every stage of history is shaped by technology and the struggle between the owners and the workers.  The struggle is for power over the means of production to run the economy and the state, including the military and the police.
7
W.E.B. Du Bois
1868-1963
  • DuBois combined a study of political economy, sociology and history.  He analyzed the Civil War and  Reconstruction in terms of class struggle.  In 1921 he stated he favored for Blacks what had happened in Russia in 1917.
8
Black Studies approach to class
  • Use both concepts (stratification and power) when appropriate.
  • All studies of class should be empirically based, replicable, and published.
  • All discussion should clarify the role of different classes in their respective historical struggles.
  • All discussions of class should clarify the differences, if any, between Blacks and white of the same class as well as different classes.
  • All discussion of class should make comparisons throughout the African Diaspora.
9
Wiki on
Social Class
  • Basic coverage:
  • a.  Global
  • b.  Scholars


  • Weakness:
  • a.  Only focus on middle class
  • b.  No discussion of class struggle
10
The logic of Black history:
modes of social cohesion, modes of social disruption
  • Africa
  • Slave trade
  • Slavery
  • Emancipation
  • Rural tenancy
  • Great migrations
  • Urban industry
  • Structural crisis
  • Information society



11
History of class and class struggle:
Slavery and capitalism
  • The main class relations were slaves and the owners of slaves.  The rule of the slave master was by brutal force.  The majority of slave owners had few slaves, but the power was in the hands of the big plantation owners.  Slavery was an engine of the capitalist system as well as an obstacle to its development. What was the role of technology?
12
History of class and class struggle:
Sharecropping and
the National Question
  • The African American nation was formed in the Black Belt South, based on family labor, church organization, blues and African retentions.  The main factors were rural isolation, concentration, and exploitation.          What was the role of technology?
13
History of class and class struggle:
Black industrial workers and changes in the Black Middle Class
14
 
15
History of class and class struggle:
Social Class and Black People 2007
  • The Black capitalist class:  main income from ownership, especially stocks
  • The Black middle class:  main income from professional jobs and family businesses
  • The Black working class: main income from jobs with little freedom of decision making
  • The Black anti-class: main income insecure from government and underground economy
16
The Black capitalist class
  • Of the “5,572 total board seats
    for Fortune 500 companies
    449 belong to African
    Americans


  • These 449 seats are distributed among 255 African Americans, many of whom serve on more
    than one corporate board. Forty-five serve on at least three
    boards, 60 are on two boards
    and 150 serve on one.”


17
The Black middle class
  • The shift in the Black middle class: from entrepreneurship to the professions. A college education is the ticket into the middle class.
18
The Black working class
  • From production work to service work, but still low tech, not info tech.  The danger is being left behind.
19
The “outsiders – the anti-class”
  • Almost 20% of Black people will never have a good job, and will be marginalized, criminalized, and liquidated.  The system has no future for this class.
20
History of class and class struggle:
Reform and Revolution
  • Black people have always been victimized in the US, a great crime against humanity.
  • Reform has always been on the agenda, and people have fought on every issue.
  • Revolution, the end of our problems, has always been a dream, a vision, a hope.
  • There are few times when revolution is on the agenda, and one of those times is now.  Fundamental change is taking place
    everywhere.
21
A revolutionary moment is now
  • There is a technological revolution taking place.
  • There is also a social revolution taking place.
  • The Hacker is a technology revolutionary who creates and transforms.
  • Who will take information technology into Black culture and make it dance and sing?


  • “The hacker ethic” University of Toledo class project in Black Studies
22
U.S. Census
The Bureau of the Census is in the Department of Commerce, and was written into the US Constitution
census.gov
23
Census
  • The US Census is the demographic description of the US population every 10 years, since 1790.


  • This is the greatest source of empirical information about the US population, but there are problems.
  • 1.  the “race problem”
  • 2.  The census undercount
  • 3.  the numbers game
24
Now being
tested:
American
CommunitySurvey
questions.
(Is this a scientific survey?)‏
25
Census undercount issues
26
The Census is a numbers game
  • Literacy – knowledge and use of quantitative data, math and statistics (African Americans score lowest on math)‏
  • Appropriation – all government expenditures are based on census data (greatest undercount impacts whole cities and states)‏
  • Apportionment – all governmental units for electoral representation are redrawn based on the goal of equalizing votes (gerrymandering remains a problem)‏
27
Household incomes for 2005: Blacks compared with Whites
  • Income % Black % White Difference
  • $0-9,999 17.7 7.1 +10.6
  • $10K – 24,999 25.7 18.4 +7.3
  • $25K – 49,999 28.3 26.1 +2.2
  • $50K – 74,999 14.6 18.8 -4.2
  • $75K and over 13.7 29.3 -15.6


  • What does Wiki miss by focusing on the middle?
28
"Educational attainment"
  • Educational attainment:
  • Comparing Blacks and Whites



  • Education Black White   Difference
  • Less than HS 19.4 10.0 +9.4
  • Less than BA 82.4 69.4 +13.0
  • BA or more 17.6 30.6 -13.0


29
Occupations of Blacks and Whites
  • Occupation White Black
  • Management 16.8 9.0
  • Professional 22.3 17.7
  • Service 13.4 24.6
  • Sales 12.4 9.2
  • Clerical 14.2 16.4
  • Farming 0.5 0.4
  • Construction 5.4 3.4
  • Repair 3.8 2.6
  • Production 5.9 7.6
  • Transport 5.4 9.1


  • Detailed Occupation of the Employed Civilian Population 16 Years and Over: March 2004
30
Who is at the bottom?
  • Ethnicity HH Income % Poverty %Uninsured
  • Asian 64,200 10.3 15.5
  • White 50,700 8.2 10.8
  • Latino 37,800 20.6 34.1
  • Black 32,000 24.3 20.5
31
2010 US Census
32
Class and Identity:
Your essay topic
  • Class is a historical and contemporary structure that society has been organized around, and everyone lives in a class context and expresses their class identity.
  • Every individual is unique.
  • We all have examples where our expectations have been correct and when we have been wrong.
  • How can we be smart, but without prejudice?
33
Check the course website:


34
Webliography
  • Slide 01: http://www.eblackstudies.org/urbana/music/3_1.mp3
  • Slide 04: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber
  • Slide 05: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Franklin_Frazier
  • Slide 06: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
  • Slide 07: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois
  • Slide 09: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class
  • Slide 12: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Belt_%28U.S._region%29
  • Slide 13: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_%28African_American%29
  • Slide 16: http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2005/Feb05/r021705
  • Slide 21: http://www.eblackstudies.org/urbana/music/3_2.mp3
  • Slide 22: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census#United_States
  • Slide 24: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Community_Survey
  • Slide 28: http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/black/ppl-186/tab7.html
  • Slide 33: http://www.eblackstudies.org/urbana/