Young, Gifted and Diverse: Origins of the New Black Elite

by Camille Z. Charles, Douglas S. Massey, Kimberly C. Torres, Rory Kramer

Overview

An in-depth look at the rising American generation entering the Black professional class

Despite their diversity, Black Americans have long been studied as a uniformly disadvantaged group. Drawing from a representative sample of over a thousand Black students and in-depth interviews and focus groups with over one hundred more, Young, Gifted and Diverse highlights diversity among the new educated Black elite—those graduating from America’s selective colleges and universities in the early twenty-first century.

Differences in childhood experiences shape this generation, including their racial and other social identities and attitudes, and beliefs about and interactions with one another. While those in the new Black elite come from myriad backgrounds and have varied views on American racism, as they progress through college and toward the Black professional class they develop a shared worldview and group consciousness. They graduate with optimism about their own futures, but remain guarded about racial equality more broadly. This internal diversity alongside political consensus among the elite complicates assumptions about both a monolithic Black experience and the future of Black political solidarity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691237459
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/23/2022
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Camille Z. Charles is the Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences and professor of sociology and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Rory Kramer is associate professor of sociology and criminology at Villanova University. Douglas S. Massey is the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Kimberly C. Torres is an affiliated faculty member in organizational dynamics and the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Authors' Note vii

1 Black Diversity in Historical Perspective 1

2 Origins of the New Black Elite 33

3 Experiences of Segregation 54

4 Identities and Attitudes 81

5 Pathways to Elite Education 123

6 Campus Social Experiences 169

7 Downsides of Upward Mobility 221

8 Emerging Elite Identities 271

9 Leaks in the Pipeline 293

10 Convergence and Intersectionality in the Black Elite 314

Appendix A Multivariate Models of Student Outcomes 351

Appendix B Interview Guide 379

Appendix C Table of Qualitative Sample of Black Students Interviewed in Conjunction with the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen 389

Appendix D Focus-Group Conversation Guide 399

References 405

Index 445

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Young, Gifted and Diverse is empirically rich, deeply moving, and absolutely needed. Through careful weaving of survey data and student voices, it forces us to question what we take for granted about what it means to be a Black student today. It is a must-read for college presidents and deans who aim to recruit diverse classes."—Anthony Abraham Jack, author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students

“The African American elite is no monolithic group. Within that cadre are individuals who reflect vast differences in racial identity, immigrant status, skin color, gender orientation, and general life experience. In providing a critical examination of intraracial diversity among high-achieving African American youth, Young, Gifted and Diverse reveals many hidden complexities embedded in the experiences and outlooks of young people on the cusp of becoming the modern Black elite. As such, it is essential reading for those desiring to understand race, social possibility, and the fate of African Americans in the twenty-first century.”—Alford Young, Jr., author of From the Edge of the Ghetto: African Americans and the World of Work

Editorial Reviews

"This book has challenged us to take a more nuanced approach to diversity within the Black community and beyond."—-Rebecca C. Franklin, Ethnic and Racial Studies

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2022

Traditionally and anachronistically seen as a monolith of sameness and indistinctness, the lives of Black people in the U.S. have all too often been under-analyzed and disregarded en masse as stories of poverty, lack of education, and crime. As claimed in this book, the life trajectories of an astronomical number of people have been cancelled by blurring their edges together and combining them all into a single mono-dimensional set of highly stereotyped and caste-friendly labels. Charles's (Taming the River) book aims to topple the paradigm and shed renewed light on the experience of Black people and all their unique traits of origins, status, immigration history, parental involvement, generational trauma and exposure to white culture. The result is an astoundingly thorough deep dive, which the reader is eased into with the help of easily digestible surveys, charts and graphs, interview excerpts and a very comprehensive reference section. VERDICT An extremely well-thought-out, -researched, and -structured look into the lives of people who have had to endure caste-inspired stigma throughout their lives.—Alessandro Cimino

Library Journal