Conclusion

Summary

The conclusion revisits several interrelated theoretical questions, including whether our views of what constitutes the Black middle class needs to be redefined, and how traditional notions of family are challenged by the rise of the Love Jones Cohort. The conclusion restates the underlying impetus of the book: to interrogate the unique lifestyle of the Love Jones Cohort, and thereby continuing to understand how their intersecting identities of race, class, gender, and singleness shape their life decisions. The conclusion also argues the notion of a family (of one) or how based on the centrality of friendship networks to those in the Love Jones Cohort we should embrace and institutionalize augmented families, thereby allowing those in the Cohort to establish family units with friends (and themselves) in a legal manner – an approach I term “the SALA Family Plan.” The conclusion discusses the main implications arising from this study.