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Racial–Ethnic Relations in the United States 279

Continued Gains. Since then, African Americans
have made remarkable gains in politics, education, and
jobs. At 10 percent, the number of African Americans
in the U.S. House of Representatives is two to three
times what it was a generation ago (Statistical Abstract
1989:Table 423; 2013:Table 421). As college enroll-
ments increased, the middle class expanded, and today
a little over half (54 percent) of all African American
families make more than $35,000 a year. Two in five
earn more than $50,000 a year. As you can see from
Table 9.4, one in eight has an income over $100,000 a
year.
African Americans have become prominent in politics.
Jesse Jackson (another sociology major) competed for
the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and
1988. In 1989, L. Douglas Wilder was elected governor
of Virginia, and in 2006, Deval Patrick became governor
of Massachusetts. These accomplishments, of course,
pale in comparison to the election of Barack Obama as
president of the United States in 2008 and his re-elec-
tion in 2012. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected
president of the United States, the
Current Losses. Despite these remarkable gains, African Americans continue to lag
first minority to achieve this office. In
behind in politics, economics, and education. According to their share of the population, 2012, he was reelected.
we would expect twelve or thirteen African American senators. How many are there? Zero.
There have been only six in U.S. history. As Tables 9.2 and 9.3 on page 276 show, African
Americans average only 59 percent of white income, experience much more poverty, and Watch on MySocLab
are less likely to have a college education. That two of five of African American families Video: Sociology in Focus: Race
have incomes over $50,000 is only part of the story. Table 9.4 shows the other part—that and Ethnicity
one of every five African American families makes less than $15,000 a year.
Race or Social Class? A Sociological Debate. Let’s turn to an ongoing disagree-
ment in sociology. Sociologist William Julius Wilson (1978, 2000, 2007) argues that
social class is more important than race in determining the life chances of African
Americans. Some other sociologists disagree.
For background on why Wilson makes this argument, let’s start with civil rights leg- Read on MySocLab
islation. Prior to the civil rights laws, African Americans were excluded from avenues of Document: Race as Class
economic advancement: good schools and good jobs. When civil rights laws opened new
opportunities, African Americans seized them, and millions entered the middle class. As
the better-educated African Americans obtained white-collar jobs, they moved to better
areas of the city and to the suburbs.
Left behind in the inner city were the less educated and less skilled, who depended on
blue-collar jobs. At this time, a second transition was taking place: Manufacturing was
moving from the city to the suburbs. This took away those blue-collar jobs. Without
work, those in the inner city have the least hope, the most despair, and the violence that
so often dominates the evening news.
This is the basis of Wilson’s argument. The
upward mobility of millions of African Americans TABLE 9.4 Race–Ethnicity and Income Extremes
into the middle class created two worlds of
African American experience—one educated and Less than $15,000 Over $100,000
affluent, the other uneducated and poor. Those Asian Americans 6.6% 37.6%
who have moved up the social class ladder live Whites 5.8% 30.3%
in comfortable homes in secure neighborhoods. African Americans 19.4% 12.5%
Their jobs provide decent incomes, and they
send their children to good schools. Those Latinos 15.6% 12.1%
who are stuck in the inner city live in depress- Note: These are family incomes. Only these groups are listed in the source.
ing poverty, attend poor schools, and have little Source: By the author: Based on Statistical Abstract of the United States 2013:Table 710.