After discussing Black Picket Fences and American Apartheid in class, the lingering question for me was “to what extent are the particular problems of the black middle class associated with their proximity to black lower classes?” Alternatively, why wouldn’t black social class integration cause youth from lower income families to participate in less “delinquent behavior.” They would have more middle class, well resourced role models after all.

We discussed that in American Apartheid, Massey argues that residential racial segregation de-stigmatizes criminal behavior in black communities. So wouldn’t racial integration (of black and white middle classes) re-stigmatize criminal behavior? What are the implications of creating a black middle class so “integrated” that has no empathy for the black poor? I doubt the efficacy of racial integration when it only means integration of the black upper middle class with the white middle class. What makes us believe that this integration will produce better outcomes from the black lower classes? Remote inspiration cannot be more impactful than close friendships.

In particular, this discussion made me think of my home state of Tennessee. In Memphis this week, incumbent mayor AC Wharton lost re-election to councilman Jim Strickland. Strickland, who ran a “tough on crime” campaign, will be the first white mayor of Memphis, a majority black city, in 24 years. Memphis is a prime example of a racially and socio-economically segregated city, such that there are a few distinct middle class black neighborhoods. I wonder, in a city like Memphis, the extent to which black social class segregation influences black middle class support of tough on crime rhetoric?

In all, I recognize that racial integration of the middle classes can absolutely have benefits, but I think it is worrisome without racial integration of the lower classes. The divide between the black poor and the white poor creates images of black ghetto pathologies that might dissipate if middle class Americans thought of white and black people equally when they think of “urban poverty” or “ghetto” or “tough on crime.”