The Black Middle Class: A Conceptual Moving Target?

• In Event: 3432 - Intersectional Methodologies

Abstract

The South African Black middle class is on the increase (StatsSA 2009; Southall 2015; Khunou 2015; Krige 2012). The growth of a Black middle class has been regarded as an important benchmark for Blacks’ social, political and economic standing. The social mobility of this group is often purported as evidence that discrimination and prejudice have eroded. In South Africa this growth is also erroneously viewed as an indicator of a shift from race to class (Berger et al. 2014). Social science literature provides evidence that middle class status is precarious for Black populations who have achieved it. As a collective and global group, Blacks continue to face historical and persistent marginalization, discrimination and segregation. For these reasons, scholars grapple with which among these Black populations should actually be considered middle class. Black middle-class scholarship examines a breadth and depth of subjects ranging from marriage and mate selection, wealth accumulation, consumption patterns, participation in the arts, community mobilization, political activism, social movements, to health and well-being. These multiple issues and the recent growth of the middle class in South Africa and abroad presents scholars with an opportunity for comparative and inter-disciplinary scholarship (Spronk 2016) for studying the global Black middle class. Interviewer personal reflections on concepts under study are not usually engaged with in publications. This omission robs fellow scholars of an opportunity to learn and fails to publicly capture the complex process of theorizing. Through a detailed examination of our reflections on the interview process and conceptualization issues in our study of the Black middle class in Johannesburg, this paper discusses the complex personal and group engagements with the concept of the Black middle class. The paper argues that intellectual and personal contestations with conceptions of Black middle classness contribute to the variability in the definition of this term.

Authors

• Kris Marsh, University of Maryland

• Grace Khunou, University of Johannesburg

• Leo Igbanoi, University of Johannesburg

• Polite Chauke, University of the Witwatersrand

• Lesego Linda, University of Johannesburg

• Mabone Kgosiemang, University of Johannesburg