Is there a growing middle-class conservative movement in black America? Previous attempts to analyze conservatism in the black community have been plagued with several problems, among them small black sample sizes in national surveys. This article tests three hypotheses about the relationship of class to conservatism in the black community using a national sample of 1,067 blacks and 1,414 whites. The major findings were that (a) on social welfare issues, the black middle class is more conservative than the black lower class, but the cleavage in the black community is smaller than in the white one; (b) on affirmative action, the black middle class appears to be more conservative than the black lower class, but this conclusion must be hedged with several caveats; and (c) at each income level, blacks are substantially more liberal than whites on each issue examined.There has been growing speculation that middle-class blacks are becoming more conservative. Observers, such as William J. Wilson (1978) and Thomas Sowell (198 1), point to the increasing impact of class on black political behavior and attitudes. This impact is thought to have created a widening gulf between middle-class blacks, who are doing relatively well and whose opportunities are widening, and lower class blacks, whose condition is worsening as unemployment increases, rates of illegitimacy spiral, and poverty deepens (

In the past ten years blacks have played a much greater role in the urban political process than they had previously. In a few urban areas-Gary, Detroit, Newark, and East St. Louis-blacks constitute an electoral majority, and there are also black mayors in these communities. In this paper two explanations, i.e., social deprivation and political reality, were tested to determine their applicability in a community with a black mayor. It was found that in a community with a black mayor, black youth were more supportive of him than were black youth in a community with a white mayor or white youth in a community with a white mayor.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract