Customer Reviews

Black Bourgeoisie: The Book That Brought the Shock of Self-Revelation to Middle-Class Blacks in America

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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."

"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

Many of the points made in the book have good merit. It provides extensive historical information about the key segments of the black society prior to 1957-the church, business, higher education, the press, etc. However, especially in the last few chapters, the author writes irrationally, or as if he is obsessed with only one point of view. Franklin paints the entire black middle class with the same broad strokes. Also, he is intent about only laying out the negatives. He writes as if he's in a debate or a street fight, rather than providing the results of objective research. This author must have used words like DELUSIONAL, PLAYING POKER, INFERIORITY, MAKE BELIEVE WORLD, hundreds of times to describe the black middle class. He seemed to be of the opinion that none of the black institutions were doing anything right. According to him, they were all basically self-serving and constantly engaging in conspicuous consumption.

I do not agree with the extent to which he portrayed the negatives of black middle class, although admittedly a lot of it is still relevant. Overall, I learned a heck of a lot from the book, because I can read such a book and then make up my own mind. I would definitely recommend it.

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.

I am not afraid to look the reality of colorism in the eye and acknowledge that it does exist within the black community. It is my greatest hope and dream that someday the dark skinned black and the light skinned black will be seen as one family in the future. I want so much to love the lightskinned sister and brother as my own reflection and not be divided from them or made to feel that one is treated better than the other, but sadly, that day is not here and this book bravely and powerfully illustrates that point to the fullest.

I am a medium brown colored woman, my mother was very dark skinned and I have witnessed the evils of skin color prejudice all my life. In most situations, it was Black Men who were prejudiced against myself and the women around me beccause of our coloring. These men felt no shame or limit in their racist intra-family prejudice and measured their entire lives by how many light skinned or white women they could attain and how light brite their children could come out. It's everywhere and anyone who denies it is both a fool and a liar.

That is why I highly recommend THE BLACKER THE BERRY by Wallace Thurman. There is no truer portrait of the self-hatred among our people than the one extolled in this book, and what makes it even sadder is that this book was written in the 1920's. So that only shows how deep this kind of evil runs.

Lately, I have become very interested in this subject and I have searched for other books that explore this subject with intelligence, honest, beauty and wisdom and I have found several that I consider to be classics on the subject of Colorism.

(1) MARITA GOLDEN'S book "Don't Play In the Sun" is definitely the most modern up to date book of the bunch. It expertly weaves the story of her life experiences in the 1960's Black Power movement with the current struggles of women like Serena Williams and India Arie to find their way in the world, even in the midst of being shunned and ignored by the black community itself. The book's analysis of the Hollywood casting system and the "Mulatto Follies" of BET and MTV is priceless.

(2) "The Bluest Eye" by TONI MORRISON is by far the most riveting and painful book that I have read on this subject of colorism. I believe that her book, more than any mother, gets to the psychological and historical root cause of the problem and exposes the mode in which we pass the problem on generation to generation. The destruction of an innocent black girl named Pecola Breedlove will leave you heartbroken and shocked as you see the bold naked truth unfold right before your eyes. You can't ignore this book, because the story being told is the one that you are all too familiar with no matter what color you are.

(3) "Flesh and the Devil" by African novelist KOLA BOOF is another deeply powerful book that examines colorism, but not out in the open. This book is unique in that it focuses on a very enchanting love story between a Black Prince and Princess and follows their reincarnations through history as they struggle to find their way back to each other. Through detailed moments in black history, both in Africa and the United States, the provocative author highlights the way that black people originally viewed their beauty and humanity and then juxtuposes it against the way they see themselves now in the modern world. The result is nothing less than devastating. I love this book so much, because the storytelling is so rich and the depth is so sweeping and grand. Anyone who loves good writing and is proud to be descended from the Black race will find themselves literally changed forever by the powerful images depicted in this very poetically moving story.

(4) "The Color Complex"--VARIOUS AUTHORS, is a very simple, straight forward analysis from a sociological point of view. Much research and statistical facts are used to illustrate that our communities are infested with these issues.

(5) "The Darkest Child" by Dolores Philips is another great novel that shows us the poor blacks who live under the poverty line ingesting these complex social hierarchies based on color and how they not only expose their children to them, but force the entire community to live by the "color code". Everybody is used to it from slavery and the system goes on and on unchallenged. In this book, Tangy Mae, the darkest of 10 children by the white-looking mother Rozelle, struggles to find her dignity and confidence in the midst of her evil light skinned mother inflicting one horrid abuse on top of the other. One thing I will say for the evil white-looking mother, Rozelle, is that she treated all of her children hiddeously and with contempt, from the whitest to the blackest. But she killed the child who was born looking

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.

This book is a classic sociological work. It brings into stark reality how Blacks are marginalized in the wider American society, regardless of what social strata they are born into, or ascend to! How the Black "middle class" is merely an illusion...a feel-good status.

This book is just as relevant in 2009 as it was at the time of this books origional printing in 1957. Elitism, whether it includes or excludes Blacks is elitism. This books uncovers so much! No matter how well some black people have done for themselves financially, they still have to work for a living. Albeit doctors, judges, and lobbyist, they're working to maintain a lifestyle. To compare working blacks to their white counterparts who have old money don't have to work at all as their wealth is generational. They have more money then they know what to do with! In my opinion, elitism is a negative thing and this segment went against the whole premise of this documentary. Elitism, whether it includes or excludes Blacks is elitism. I really think this book is great for anyone looking to renew their mind.

E. Franklin Frazier's *Black Bourgeoisie* first published in 1957, is as relevant today as it was then. Frazier stated that his primary purpose for the "study is to make a sociological analysis of the black bourgeoisie."

The study examines the status of the black bourgeoisie and how they, as a class, came about in the American society. He assesses black enterprise within the economy and the significance of black business. p.23

Frazier argues that the black bourgeoisie "lacking a cultural tradition and rejecting identification with the Negro masses on the one hand, and suffering from the contempt of the white world on the other, the black bourgeoisie has developed a deep-seated inferiority complex. In order to compensate for this feeling of inferiority, the black bourgeoisie has created in its isolation what might be described as a world of make-believe in which it attempts to escape the disdain of whites and fulfill its wish for status in American life." pp.24-25.

As I understand it, when this work was first published about 50 year ago, it made the black "middle class" very uncomfortable. Naturally, they were quite critical of Frazier and the work.

Many aspects of Frazier's assessment of the black bourgeoisie, in terms of their modus operandi and business dealings, could easily be applied to the behavior of the native bourgeoisie in former colonial territories in Central America, South America, Africa, India and Asia. Andre Gunder Frank used the term "lumpen-bourgeoisie" to explain the behavior of the native business class in Latin America.

The "black bourgeoisie," essentially, in their attempt to accumulate wealth, facilitates the exploitation of the black population by big corporations and the political elites.

This "lumpen-black-bourgeoisie" therefore, preys upon the black majority perpetuating and intensifying the underdevelopment and poverty already inflicted upon the poor by their historical circumstances, by politicians, corporations and the big financial bourgeois.

Frazier's book is not dated. It remains a worthwhile reading for students and general readers.

For further information on the African Diaspora bourgeoisie/Globalization See also:

In-Dependence from Bondage: Claude McKay and Michael Manley: Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora Relations

This book is excellent in that it gets dead on to the point on a major problem that faced Black America in 1957 and that it STILL faces today-too many Black Americans have internalized the racist beleifs said about us and are filled with self-hatred as a result. One cannot hope to find solutions to Africa-America's problems unlesss you get to the source, and this book does exactly that. Read it, think, then act.