Black Picket Fences : Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class
by Mary Pattillo-McCoy

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Book Reviews of Black Picket Fences : Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class

Book Review: Proper Streets: Growing up in Groveland
Summary: 5 Stars

Black Picket Fences is in part a response to what Pattillo-McCoy characterizes as the research pendulum of socio-economic studies of blacks having "swung to the extreme." That is, despite the large body of research focusing on the black population, the overwhelming majority further focuses on the less affluent portions of the population, having largely other segments the black population. However, research and knowledge of the black middle class is vitally important because, as Pattillo-McCoy points out, these are the people who are supposedly living the lives that our government and society has envisioned for all blacks following the Civil Rights era of the 1960s.

In the book, the author emphasizes the prevalence and importance of spatial orientation of racial communities. Pattillo-McCoy utilizes census data to show that in Chicago and most other metropolitan areas, black communities are concentrated in "black belts" surrounded by tracts of predominantly white communities. On the periphery of these black belts are often middle-income black communities that serve as a buffer between white communities and low-income black communities.

This picture, though, is not static through time. Pattillo-McCoy reveals a game of racial cat-and-mouse in which middle class black families are chasing their white counterparts. The pattern starts when a black family moves into a predominantly white neighborhood. Whites begin leaving the area, and soon the area is predominantly middle class black. Then lower income blacks migrate into the area, creating a mixture of economic statuses within the community. Such is the case in Groveland.

One concern that arises from her heavy reliance on census data, though, is the possibility of generalization. This is especially troublesome in light of the high socio-economic diversity of many black communities that Pattillo-McCoy describes. This is not as much in relation to her Groveland study area, but the other South Side communities that the author details in chapters one and two.

The implications of living in such an economically diverse community are large, especially for adolescents. Pattillo-McCoy points out that the appeal of deviance to teenagers cuts across racial and class lines, the motivations and accessibility of deviant behavior are often very different. In Groveland, a teenager is constantly confronted with realities of gang life and drug use because gang members and drug users are a large part of the Groveland community. In fact, most teenagers have acquaintances who are in gangs or who know gang members. This means that a part of the teenager's social network probably participates in gang behavior and drug use, making him or her both easy access and social reinforcement for such activities. This is less often the case for middle class whites, who often reside in homogenous neighborhoods where gangs and drugs are less common.

McCoy also emphasizes that today's young Groveland residents are much downward social mobility than previous generations of Groveland residents and middle class whites outside of Groveland.

There are often family and community security mechanisms to help Groveland residents. It is relatively common for divorced or resource-limited mothers to move in with her own parents. The grandparents help in parenting by supervising children, changing diapers, and serving as role models for children. Also, many families in Groveland are third or fourth generation residents, so most people in the community have long-standing social connections to other residents. These connections often prevent wrong-doers from targeting others in the community, and the familiarity helps potential targets feel more comfortable around people they perceive as being criminals, because in all likelihood they know each other or other's parents or children.

McCoy shows how individual Groveland residents deftly navigate between "street" and "decent" parts of their social networks by code and persona switching. Chief among these is William "Spider" Waters, a marijuana-smoking gang member who works two jobs with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Groveland Park, respectively. At the exchange, he speaks proper English, goes by Will, and works on his days off. In Groveland, he speaks Black English, goes by Spider, and "kicks it" with his friends. Tyson Reed, former Groveland gang member, student at Grambling University, and aspiring lawyer, points out the even though he talks about school, grades, and academic things, he doesn't broach the subjects of grades or Albert Einstein with his friends from the ghetto.

This book has wide-ranging relevance. It is enriching academic reading for students in sociology, cultural anthropology, and ethnographic studies. More importantly, though, this book is very important to American citizens in general. This book is about their neighbors and illustrates injustices that take place within America's borders. If the American social ideal of racial integration is to ever become a reality, the American public needs to be more informed about why integration is taking so long, why middle class citizens are still socially constrained, and what unjust situations are being perpetuated within America's borders. Black Picket Fences gives a very personal, very compelling answers to these queries. It is certain that the situations that exist in Groveland exist elsewhere in America and quite probable that they exist outside of America, too. Therefore, this book comes highly recommended to everyone.

Summary of Black Picket Fences : Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class

Discrimination & Racism Books

• Nonfiction > Social Sciences
• Special Groups > African-American Studies
• General
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