Afro-Americans as a Political Class

Towards Conceptual Clarity

Bibliographic Data

ID10563274
AuthorsJoseph W Scott (University of Notre Dame, corresponding author)
Year1977
Volume10
Issue4
Pages383-395
Publication date1977-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Focus (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0237 • E-ISSN: 2162-1128
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00380237.1977.10570301
OpenAlexW2066190730
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

This study re-opens the issue of whether there was a unique aspect to the black experience in the U.S. The legal history of the blacks show quite clearly that there was: No other immigrants were statutorily ascribed a subordinate heriditary socio-economic status. Since the statutory proscriptions went beyond customary and market discrimination typical in the experiences of other groups and made socio-economic deprivation inheritable by all future generations of blacks, the statutes fit the criteria of a classical estate system. This estate experience is what sets blacks apart from sall other ethnic groups coming to the U. S. and makes the differences in the types of socio-political and socio-economic movements blacks have engaged in. Estates are political classes. The paper shows that bringing the concept of estate back into the theorizing of racial and ethnic relations provides a better basis for understanding social protest movements by ethnic and sex groups and a better basis for understanding the dynamics of economic stratification in this country. Political class analysis as opposed to economic class analysis is suggested as the most fruitful way to understand black-white relations in the U.S

CLARITY · Estate · Ethnic group · Immigration · Political science · Politics · Real estate · Social class · Sociology · Statute · Statutory law · Gender Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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