Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Prof. Ogden
English 1A 32460
3/16/16
The New Black Elite
(Study Guide)
STUDY GUIDE FOR : Where We Stand: Class Matters. Class Matters: The New Black Elite.
Bell Hooks.
Part 1: SUMMARY
Bell discusses how the accounts of the voyages of black explorers who came to the Americas
before Columbus were suppressed. Most people, including blacks, have never heard of these
travels with the "black" narrative in America beginning with slavery. Many whites coming to the
New World, who were portrayed historically as upper-class, were actually working class people,
and in some cases indigent. There was a caste system among blacks in the New World in which
some had higher statuses than others. Lighter skinned blacks, relatives of white slave owners,
were often treated better than darker skinned blacks. In the forties and fifties, middle-class black,
referred to as the black bourgeoisie, took on the role as mediator between the black masses and
Part 2: OUTLINE
I.
Many whites coming to the New World, who were portrayed historically as upperclass, were actually working class people
A. The New world is the U.S. as the whites came from Great Britain
to start a new life.
1. As the colony rises up, the white race had
opportunities in jobs, homes, new and a new lifestyle.
2. Whites were working class or poor but still had
II.
III.
IV.
V.
white privilege.
Slaves came to America and were seen as Objects
A. Establishment of social hierarchy
1. Blacks brought cotton seeds
2. Light skin blacks had more right than darker slaves.
Compared the holocaust to more modern conditions
A. Whites made blacks feel outcasted.
Government silenced those who were for black rights.
A. Successful black people did not want to be in the spotlight.
1. They will feel hated and in dangerous conditions.
2. They did not have no role models to look up to.
Black people are not afraid to talk about class.
A. They showed their true feelings between class.
1. Race was an important role when it came to class.
Part 5: Analysis
This chapter in the book has a similarity when it comes to the three best friends in the books
called the Pact. In the books, it shares that three best friends that grew up in the ghetto poor
and struggling showed how anything can be achieved as they go through challenges in order to
have successful careers all together in the medical field. AS in Where we stand, in order to go up
into the high class area, we need to go through many challenges in struggles. It shows how the
whites before they are known for going to high class, they would spend their early years in the
times of slavery to the 20th century struggling and working hard in order to achieve where they
are today. As well for black people, they have seem to be in high power but as the 90s came
along it started to go down hill with only a few left in high power.
Part 6: External Sources
Drs. Sampson, George, and Rameck Hunt. The Pact. New York: Riverhead Books, 2002.
Print.
Chosen by Essence to be among the forty most influential African Americans, the three doctors
grew up in the streets of Newark, facing city life's temptations, pitfalls, even jail. But one day
these three young men made a pact. They promised each other they would all become doctors,
and stick it out together through the long, difficult journey to attaining that dream. Sampson
Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt are not only friends to this day--they are all doctors.
This is a story about the power of friendship. Of joining forces and beating the odds. A story
about changing your life, and the lives of those you love most...together.