2 - How the Love Jones Cohort Defines the Black Middle Class

Summary

Chapter 2 implicates how the definition of the Black middle class has evolved over time and how the earlier research underlying such definitions has principally focused on Black married-couple families with children, and largely overlooked those who live SALA lifestyles. Chapter 2 addresses this gap in the literature by interrogating how those within the Love Jones Cohort conceptualize themselves as members of the Black middle class and how they define the Black middle class more generally. Chapter 2 also questions whether the emergence and presence of the Cohort complicates established definitions of the Black middle class. Chapter 2 demonstrates that, in general, those within the Cohort conceptualized middle-classness according to broader definitions of the Black middle class, in terms that align with the scholarship outlining objective, subjective, and a combination of both measures. Chapter 2 documents how education and income are central to the way Cohort members judge their (and others’) middle-class status, and associated subjective measures, such as education-related networks and the lifestyle commodities, as well as activities that a middle-class income provides.