NPR Poll on Blacks: Class or Values?

The following is disjointed, and I know it. I'm hoping I have time to clean it up before it is posted based on time. If not, consider this a draft that I made public.

I read this on Wednesday morning:

Consider: The black people most likely to say that blacks no longer share values across class lines have only a high school diploma or less education (37 percent), or they are lower-income (39 percent). Those most likely to say that all black people have many common values are college-educated blacks (78 percent) and black Americans who have incomes of more than $100,000 (66 percent).

But 70 percent of the same well-educated black people also acknowledge that they see values increasingly "diverging" between the black poor and middle class. That's different from the responses to a 1986 poll in which all classes of black Americans said differences over values were not diffusing the common black experience. Today both middle-class and poor blacks agree that racism is still a big issue for any black person. But they admit that the divide over values is splitting the community.

Is this a class issue or a values issue? If it is a values issue, is it broad based values being compared or "key" values being the issue?

Are most Blacks in the middle and upper classes criminals? How about most Blacks in the lower classes? If the answer is no, which is the answer, then what? Obeying the law is not a class value it is a societal value, in general.

Class has been an issue in the Black community for a very long time. This was born out with the clashes that occurred between "northern Blacks" and the incoming "southern Blacks" during the period of the Northern Migration.

When I was younger, "everyone" knew about Jack & Jill. I'm sure Juan Williams knows about Jack & Jill and about the rules in order to be NOMINATED to get into the group and what it takes to get in after being nominated. If Juan Williams wanted to illuminate things in the Black community, he could have mentioned Jack & Jill and their class based organization. Or maybe he could have mentioned the Prince Hall Masons, Elks, Daughters of Elks, and other "old" Black groups that revealed the class differences in the Black community going back DECADES. Jack & Jill was founded in 1938!

So, why is it that the Black folks who were part of this survey didn't consider Jack & Jill when responding to the questions? Or, the "Black Masons"? Or the Black Greeks?  Or the Black funeral home director families!!!!! ( I think that's a good one. Just TRY to get into that field without being family or close friends of the family of a Black funeral home director and see how far you get! ) All of these groups are a consideration of class, and by direct extension, class values.

Again, I don't understand the responses.

I am really mulling these studies over.

Comments

[Duane]

Is this a class issue or a values issue?

I think that this really gets to the heart of it. By making it a "class" issue it suggests that money/resources (or access to it) is all that is needed to put everybody on the same level, so to speak. I personally do not buy into that because it has already been proven over and over again that simply giving either does not change a person's status in life. This is where I believe values come into play.

A person can be 'ghetto' and have a lot of money. But they will not have it for long if they do not put aside that mindset. On the flip side, a person can have good values and not be considered middle/upper-class. You can see the same thing in other races as well. Depending on the values an individual abides by oftentimes makes the difference if a person stays poor or is at least on the pathway of moving out of poverty. Values like 'work ethic' immediately come to mind here. In fact, I have a good example: I have a very good friend who used to work with my Dad in the steel mill. He was a "GOOD" worker (showed up on time, did the basics), but the jury was still out about him being a 'HARD' worker. Anyway, an opportunity came up for him to move up into management, but he refused. Why? Because he did not want the extra responsibility. In fact, he requested to do janitorial work instead. Last I checked, he was still working that position. He is definitely not the first person I have come across who thinks that way.

Like you suggested, what values were considered in this study?

I think the examples you gave were pretty good, except you have to keep in mind that orgs. like J&J, Masons, etc. are not ors. everybody in the Black community are aspiring to join. On the contrary, most folks at least have the desire to move ahead.

I will say that I think that the headlines going around for this study are very misleading.

[brotherbrown]

I'd be interested in a regional and age cohort breakdown as well.

And what does a brother have to do (or not do) to be included in a "comprehensive opinion polls about the black community?" I'm a middle aged, homeowning, church-going (sometimes), degreed consumer, who has never been arrested. I have an American Express card, own stocks and bond, a Costco membership, and even sit on the local workforce investment board.

Can I get a survey next time?

[MIB]

There are many people, Af-Ams included, for whom one's economic standing ('class') is a proxy for values in itself. Class warfare has always been constant, if not cyclical, part of American culture. I would think the expansion of the Black professional and middle classes over the last 25 years combined with the general social acceptance of consumerism accounts for the perceptions identified in the NPR poll. It also explains why it's so popular to portray poverty as a flaw in one's character.