Blacks on the Bubble: The Vulnerability of Black Executives in White Corporations

Stark contrasts between the black middle class and ghetto poor have raised important questions among scholars about what influences the status of African-Americans. Scholars ask whether a new system of stratification is evolving in labor market to respond more to class, that is, socioeconomic status and attainment than to racial factors. While most studies use aggregate data, this article uses in-depth interviews. Also, while most studies concentrate on the disadvantaged, this study focuses on those African-Americans who have attained some measure of economic success to explore this issue. These interviews reveal that black employment in high-status occupations is partially dependent on an organization of jobs that mediate racial pressures, such as affirmative action jobs. They also indicate that this structure of opportunity is unstable because it fluctuates in response to race-conscious political conditions. Therefore, black attainments are not necessarily evidence of deracialization in the labor market. At least partially, they indicate a dependence on (versus autonomy from) employment practices that are sensitive to the politics of race.