Black Bourgeoisie

by E. Franklin Frazier, Shervert Frazier, with a New Introduction by the Author) E. Franklin Frazier (Author

Book Overview

A classic analysis of the Black middle class studies its origin and development, accentuating its behavior, attitudes, and values during the 1940s and 1950s.

When it was first published in 1957, E. Franklin Frazier's Black Bourgeoisie was simultaneously reviled and revered--revered for its skillful dissection of one of America's most complex communities, reviled for daring to cast a critical eye on a section of black society that...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684832410
• ISBN13: 9780684832418
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Sheila

I agree with most of what Mr. Franklin wrote in his book. Black people had a different kind of criteria for those that they called upper/ middle class. And in most cases it is still the same today. Sure there were a few truly upper/middle class people in our race when this book was written. But the bundle that made up the Black upper/middle class were ordinary everyday people. Postmen, pullmen porters, butlers in the white folks house were all a part of the Black upper/middle class. These guys sometimes had wives who were school teachers. So that threw them in the upper/middle class basket too. We were nothing like the white people who had real money. The white girls who are introduced to society at formal balls are from families with lots of money.They also come from genarations of class and refinement. And that might have been and still might be that way with the black girls in cities like Washington, D. C., New York City, New Orleans, and places like that. But here in savannah the word debutant has/had a different meaning. As many as possible with a measure of money and class were asked to be debutants. The majority of the girls really had no business trying to be presented into society in such a formal way. They had no money and no real status. Some went off to work in white people's houses to send themselves to college. Their parents were servants in white peoples homes and other jobs along those lines. But the girls themselves were chosen based on skin color, popularity, looks, and a list of other things. The whole thing has taken a turn though. Girls are not interested in that sort of thing anymore. In E. Franklin Frazier's book I ran across several things that the Negro race recognized as greatness. An example is found the following scenerio. Honor was given to a Negro servant who had his picture painted by a famous artist. Not only was the Negro praised. He was also featured as an example of a Negro in the world of art. That makes me think about the college girl who worked at Burger king. Not only did she help pay for her schooling. She saved money to purchase her gown for the debutant's ball. Imagine that. Working at Burger king and rushing home to get ready to be presented to society. Joe Lewis, Bill Bojangles Robinson, and even numbers kings rubbed elbows with the so called elite Black people in our race. Do you think whites of that sort ran in circles with the upper class whites? The Black businesses are no longer a myth. Earl Graves, John Johnson, A. G. Gaston and many others have proven that Black people can maintain businesses. The Black Bourgeoisie is a must have. I can certainly appreciate having it in my library. This book and Gerri Major's The Black Society are major resources for those who want research the Black upper/middle class.

From a Critic

"When it was first published in 1957, Black Bourgeoisie was simultaneously revered and reviled because it cast a critical eye on one of the cornerstones of the black American community--its middle class. In the 1950s, before the recent burgeoning of the black middle class, Frazier identified the problems that occur in the aftermath of 'black-flight' from the inner cities and black communities of the rural South. The book's relevance has only increased as over the years the divide between increasingly prosperous middle-class blacks and their increasingly desperate 'underclass' brethren has grown into an almost uncrossable chasm. ¶ By tracing the evolution of the black bourgeoisie, from the segregated South to the integrated North, Frazier shows how the blacks who comprised the middle class have lost their cohesion by moving out of black communities and attempting to integrate white communities. The result of this integration 'is an anomalous bourgeois class with no identity, built on self-sustaining myths of black business and society, silently undermined by a collective, debilitating inferiority complex.' Frazier hoped to dispel the image of blacks as having thrown off the psychological and economical ravages of slavery to become economically powerful, because according to Frazier, it was a lie that was damaging the community. ¶ Frazier, chairman of the Department of Sociology at Howard University and president of the International Society for the Scientific Study of Race Relations, hoped that Black Bourgeoisie would impel blacks to make changes that would empower their community. For the most part, those hoped-for changes have not occurred. Nevertheless, today, as many black people are calling into question the very existence and relevance of an autonomous 'black community,' his book offers a fascinating perspective on the costs of that community's dissolution."--Sacred Fire

AN INDISPENSABLE COMMENTARY ON THE HUMAN CONDITION!

This analysis of the condition of the descendants of the African Slave Trade are right on the money. The most obvious points being that money (having, not having, getting, or loosing it) has become the dominating factor in the consciousness of the "Black Middle Class", and more recently, the majority of the entire race!Edward Franklin Frazier proves that the so-called "Negroe's" pursuit of a College Degree is not to increase one's academic proficiency, or contribute excellence to a particular filed of endeavor, or even to pass the knowledge on to our offspring, but simply to make more money.This book has made me ponder why so many of my acquaintances that have Master's Degrees, never pass along anything they learned, or even discuss the knowledge they have gained, for any reason other than vocational?I have no doubt that had he lived, he would have continued to accurately predict the social conditions that spawned the terms: "Money makes the world go round", "You can't live on love", "Cash Rules Everything Around Me (CREAM)", and "I love the dough, more than you know".I am saddened that his gifted insight did not allow him to suggest a viable, detailed solution to these problems.

Now I understand!

If you, as an African American, have ever wondered why some "brothers" seem to ignore your existence, even if you have the same education, this book will fill in a lot of holes for you. As I read it, I continually said to myself "So THAT'S why so and so treated me like I was the invisible woman!" I feel more sad than angry for the blacks described in the book. They are caught in a no man's land partly of their own making. They believe they are above other blacks without the family bloodlines, wealth, and education they have. Yet the Caucasians who should be their peers reject them as social inferiors because of their skin color--even if it is lighter than most other African Americans. It's a tragedy; their skills and talents are needed by us all, yet they are lost because of their own snobbery and the racism of others. Read this book, then live your life differently from these black "elite."