2: The Black Middle Class: A Conceptual Moving Target?

Social science literature provides evidence that middle class status is precarious for Black populations who have achieved it. Apart from the collective discrimination and misconceptions that trail Black people as they move into middle class status, and how they are positioned vis-à-vis other race populations, scholars also grapple with who among Black populations should actually be considered middle class (Canham & Williams, 2017). As a result, Black middle class scholarship examines the breadth and depth of subjects ranging from marriage and mate selection, wealth accumulation, consumption patterns, participation in the arts, community mobilisation, political activism and social movements, to health and well-being, in an attempt to locate Black populations within middle class status. Yet the problem of defining the Black middle class is further compounded by the myriad ways and unstable manner in which Black population define themselves as middle class. These issues and the recent expansion of the numbers of those that consider themselves as members of the middle class in South Africa and abroad present scholars with an opportunity for inter-disciplinary scholarship (Spronk, 2016) and prospects for studying the global Black middle class.