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Race or Social Class? A Sociological Debate. This division of African Americans into “haves” and “have-nots” has fueled a sociological controversy. Sociologist William Julius Wilson (1978, 2000, 2007) argues that social class has become more important than race in determining the life chances of African Americans. Before civil rights legislation, he says, the African American experience was dominated by race. Through- out the United States, African Americans were excluded from avenues of economic advancement: good schools and good jobs. When civil rights laws opened new oppor- tunities, African Americans seized them. Just as legislation began to open doors to African Americans, however, manufacturing jobs dried up, and many blue-collar jobs were moved to the suburbs. As better-educated African Americans obtained middle- class, white-collar jobs and moved out of the inner city, left behind were those with poor education and few skills.

Wilson stresses how significant these two worlds of African American experience are. The group that is stuck in the inner city lives in poverty, attends poor schools, and faces dead-end jobs or welfare. This group is filled with hopelessness and de- spair, combined with apathy or hostility. In contrast, those who have moved up the social class ladder live in comfortable homes in secure neighborhoods. Their jobs provide decent incomes, and they send their children to good schools. With their middle-class experiences shaping their views on life, their aspirations and values have little in common with those of African Americans who remain poor. Accord- ing to Wilson, then, social class—not race—is the most significant factor in the lives of African Americans.

Some sociologists reply that this analysis overlooks the discrimination that continues to underlie the African American experience. They note that African Americans who do the same work as whites average less pay (Willie 1991; Herring 2002) and even receive fewer tips (Lynn et al. 2008). This, they argue, points to racial discrimination, not to social class.

What is the answer to this debate? Wilson would reply that it is not an either-or question. My book is titled The Declining Significance of Race, he would say, not The Absence of Race. Certainly racism is still alive, he would add, but today social class is more central to the African American experience than is racial discrimination. He stresses that we need to provide jobs for the poor in the inner city—for work provides an anchor to a responsible life (Wilson 1996, 2007).

Racism as an Everyday Burden. Racism, though more subtle than it used to be, still walks among us (Perry 2006; Crowder and South 2008). Since racism has become more subtle, it takes more subtle methods to uncover it. In one study, researchers sent out 5,000 résumés in response to help wanted ads in the Boston and Chicago Sunday papers (Bertrand and Mullainathan 2002). The résumés were identical, except for the names of the job applicants. Some applicants had white-sounding names, such as Emily and Bran- don, while others had black-sounding names, such as Lakisha and Jamal. Although the qualifications of the supposed job applicants were identical, the white-sounding names elicited 50 percent more callbacks than the black-sounding names. The Down-to-Earth So- ciology box on the next page presents another study of subtle racism.

African Americans who occupy higher statuses enjoy greater opportunities and face less discrimination. The discrimination that they encounter, however, is no less painful. Unlike whites of the same social class, they sense discrimination hovering over them. Here is how an African American professor described it:

[One problem with] being black in America is that you have to spend so much time think- ing about stuff that most white people just don’t even have to think about. I worry when I get pulled over by a cop. . . . I worry what some white cop is going to think when he walks over to our car, because he’s holding on to a gun. And I’m very aware of how many black folks accidentally get shot by cops. I worry when I walk into a store, that someone’s going to think I’m in there shoplifting. . . . And I get resentful that I have to think about things that a lot of people, even my very close white friends whose politics are similar to mine, simply don’t have to worry about. (Feagin 1999:398)

Racial–Ethnic Relations in the United States 289

Sociologists disagree about the relative significance of race and social class in determining social and economic conditions of

African Americans. William Julius Wilson, shown here, is an avid proponent of the social class

side of this debate.