"That's When the Neighborhood Went South": How Middle Class Blacks and Whites Police Racial Boundaries of Stigmatized Blackness

Drawing on evidence from a case study of a racially transitioning suburb of Chicago, we argue that both blacks and whites discursively form, maintain, protect, and navigate contradictory class and racial identities. The interactions between race and class are complex, but how do these complexities manifest themselves? We contend that racial groups utilize discursive storytelling to maintain boundaries, and that this is one of the ways in which racial and class inequalities are created and preserved. Furthermore, we explore the interworking of race and class, focusing on how class location helps mediate self-proclaimed middle class blacks’ and whites’ discourse on stigmatized forms of blackness. We conclude with a discussion of the sociological implications of this boundary maintenance, focusing on the ways in which whites and blacks in the middle class utilize various forms of capital to preserve status and power.