Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation PDF
Preview Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation
Facing Up to the American Dream PRINCETON STUDIES IN AMERICAN POLITICS: HISTORICAL, INTERNATIONAL, AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES SERIESEDITORS IRAKATZNELSON,MARTINSHEFTER,THEDASKOCPOL LaborVisionsandStatePower:TheOriginsofBusinessUnionism intheUnitedStates byVictoriaC.Hattam TheLincolnPersuasion:RemakingAmericanLiberalism byJ.DavidGreenstone PoliticsandIndustrialization:EarlyRailroadsintheUnitedStates andPrussia byColleenA.Dunlavy PoliticalPartiesandtheState:TheAmericanHistoricalExperience byMartinShefter PrisonersofMyth:TheLeadershipoftheTennesseeValley Authority,1933–1990 byErwinC.Hargrove BoundbyOurConstitution:Women,Workers,andtheMinimumWage byVivienHart ExpertsandPoliticians:ReformChallengestoMachinePoliticsin NewYork,Cleveland,andChicago byKennethFinegold SocialPolicyintheUnitedStates:FuturePossibilitiesin HistoricalPerspective byThedaSkocpol PoliticalOrganizationsbyJamesQ.Wilson FacingUptotheAmericanDream:Race,ClassandtheSoul oftheNation byJenniferL.Hochschild Facing Up to the American Dream RACE, CLASS, AND THE SOUL OF THE NATION Jennifer L. Hochschild PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Copyright1995byPrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet, Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,Chichester,WestSussex AllRightsReserved LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Hochschild,JenniferL.,1950– FacinguptotheAmericandream:race,class,andthesoulof thenation/JenniferL.Hochschild. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-691-02957-1(CL:alk.paper) 1.UnitedStates—Racerelations. 2.Afro-Americans—Social conditions—1975– 3.Afro-Americans—Economicconditions. 4.Socialclasses—UnitedStates. I.Title. E185.615.H55 1995 305.8'00973—dc20 95-13061 ThisbookhasbeencomposedinGalliard PrincetonUniversityPressbooksareprintedonacid-freepaperandmeetthe guidelinesforpermanenceanddurabilityoftheCommitteeofProduction GuidelinesforBookLongevityoftheCouncilonLibraryResources PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyPrincetonAcademicPress 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Disclaimer: Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. For Eleanor, Raphael, and the others What I want to see above all is that this country remains a country where someone can always get rich. That’s the one thingwehaveandthatmustbepreserved. —PresidentRonaldReagan,1983 I ran for president because I believed the American Dream wasatriskformillionsofourfellowcitizens. —PresidentBillClinton,1995 Yes, we is all the same under God so we has the same prob- lems, but colored folk has special ones, too. It’s the same being colored as white but it’s different being colored, too....It’sthesame,butit’sdifferent. —elderlywomaninterviewedbyRobertColes,1966 There is no surer way of misunderstanding the Negro or of being misunderstood by him than by ignoring manifest dif- ferencesofconditionandpower. —W.E.B.DuBois,1899 CONTENTS Tables and Figure ix Preface xi Acknowledgments ixx Introduction 3 PART ONE: The Philosophical and Empirical Context CHAPTER ONE What Is the American Dream? 15 CHAPTER TWO Rich and Poor African Americans 39 PART TWO: The Three Paradoxes CHAPTER THREE “What’s All the Fuss About?”: Blacks’ and Whites’ Beliefs about the American Dream 55 CHAPTER FOUR “Succeeding More” and “Under the Spell”: Affluent and Poor Blacks’ Beliefs about the American Dream 72 PART THREE: Succeeding More and Enjoying It Less CHAPTER FIVE Beliefs about One’s Own Life 91 CHAPTER SIX Beliefs about Others 122 CHAPTER SEVEN CompetitiveSuccess and Collective Well-being 141 viii CONTENTS PART FOUR: Under the Spell of the Great National Suggestion CHAPTER EIGHT Remaining under the Spell 157 CHAPTER NINE With One Part of Themselves They Actually Believe 174 CHAPTER TEN Distortingthe Dream 184 CHAPTER ELEVEN Breaking the Spell 200 CHAPTER TWELVE The Perversity of Race and the Fluidity of Values 214 PART FIVE: Race and the American Dream CHAPTER THIRTEEN Comparing Blacks and White Immigrants 225 CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Future of the American Dream 250 APPENDIX A Surveys Used for Unpublished Tabulations 261 APPENDIX B Supplemental Tables 267 Notes 271 Works Cited 341 Index 399 TABLES AND FIGURE TABLES 2.1:Averagejobstatusforemployedadults,byraceandgender, 1940–1980 40 2.2: Life expectancies at birth, by race and gender, 1940–1990 41 2.3: Household income, by race, 1967–1992 44 2.4: Share of families’ aggregate income held by richest and poorest fifths, by race, 1947–1992 48 2.5: Income gains of top and bottom quintiles of families, by race, 1967–1992 49 2.6: Crime victimization,by race and class, 1976–1992 50 3.1: How good are your chances to pursue the American dream? by race 58 3.2: Does racial discriminationinhibit blacks’ participationin the American dream? by race 62 3.3: Are African Americans responsible for their low status? by race 66 3.4: Are successful blacks virtuous? by race 67 3.5: Responses vary across surveys even in the same year 71 4.1: Do whites want to keep blacks down? 74 4.2: Does racial discriminationinhibit blacks’ participationin the American dream? by race and class 76 4.3: Who is making progress, 1984? 79 4.4: Can African Americans reasonably anticipateachieving their dream? by race and class 81 4.5: Are African Americans responsible for their low status? by race and class 84 4.6: Are successful blacks virtuous? by race and class 86 5.1: Who is responsible for problems in the black community? by race and class, 1990 106 7.1: Who gets special treatment?by race and gender 147
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