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.
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