EXCERPT: Black Bourgeoisie

Revisiting E. Franklin Frazier’s classic sociological study Black Bourgeoisie should help us understand the misleaders of today’s Black superelite.

Sixty year after Black Bourgeoisie was first published, the fundamental class registers of the Black elite have changed somewhat; Frazier did not anticipate the birth of a Black superelite in politics, sports, and entertainment. Yet the essential ideological leanings of this class – their positioning as the paternal minders of the Black poor and working class, their role as intermediaries for white political and economic power, their reformist, anti-radical politics – has not. As such, it’s worth revisiting and remembering Frazier’s claims. They should offer shocks and revelations about the Black bourgeoisie of our present age. Excerpts from “Power and Political Orientation,” chapter 5 of Black Bourgeoisie, are reprinted below.

[blackagendareport.com]

{The political leaders who have emerged as a consequence of the new role of Negroes in the political life of America are men and women with a purely middleclass outlook. In the rough and tumble politics of American cities, it has often been Negroes associated with the underworld who have been able to organize the Negro voters and wring concessions from white society. These Negro leaders often operate behind the facade of a legitimate business, very frequently the undertaking business. The undertaking business brings them into intimate contact with the Negro masses. Among the Negro masses they gain a reputation for generosity and humanity by giving money to the poor and to churches and by enabling criminals to escape punishment. Behind the facade of their legitimate business, they carry on illegitimate businesses such as gambling, vice, and the lottery known as the "numbers." Therefore, their interest in the political machines is mainly to secure protection for their business enterprises. They often make financial contributions to both the Democratic and Republican Party machines in order to insure protection for their businesses. Their political affiliation or leadership has no relation to the needs of the Negro masses.}

{In his role as leader, the Negro politician attempts to accommodate the demands of the Negro masses to his personal interests which are tied up with the political machines. He may secure the appointment of a few middle-class Negroes to positions in the municipal government. But when it comes to the fundamental interests of the Negro masses as regards employment, housing, and health, his position is determined by the political machine which represents the propertied classes of the white community…..

….On the national scene, the white political leader plays the role of a friend of Negroes. He is influential in securing a contribution from the large corporation to a fund-raising campaign for Negro education, of which he is a director. Moreover, he consented to become a trustee of a Negro college in the South which receives money from the fund-raising campaign. In the eyes of the black bourgeoisie of this city, some of whom send their children to the Negro college, he is a friend of the Negro. The few Negro intellectuals who have dared to express disapproval of the existing system of control over race relations have been labeled Communists.}