The Rage of a Privileged Class Author:Ellis Cose Although there are differing explanations for it, no one is surprised by the existence of rage in the so-called black underclass. What most people do not know, much less understand, is that middle-class blacks are angry too. In fact, polls consistently show that a majority of this privileged class is at least as disaffected and pessi... more »mistic as those struggling at society's margins.
why should people who have enjoyed all the fruits of the civil rights revolution be quietly seething inside? For the first time, distinguished journalist Ellis Cose examines in depth the discrimination that haunts even most affluent and best-educated African Americans.
Cose interviewed scores of successful blacks, men and women in a wide variety of professions, all with stories of their continuing encounters with prejudice, of its damaging effects on their lives, their careers, their children, and of the painful insensitivity whites continue to display toward blacks, no matter how well-dressed, well-connected, well-paid, and competent they may be. In addition to this compelling direct testimony, Cose offers thoughtful discussion of affirmative action and a probing analysis of white fear of black crime, dissecting the arguments of those who use that fear to justify discrimination.
The Rage of a Privileged Class is a revelatory, highly original exploration of a neglected aspect of our nation's greatest and most enduring problem. With measured eloquence, Ellis Cose shows that even for the black middle class, which as worked hard and played by the rules, the American dream is still a dream deferred. « less