Cose: Revisiting ‘The Rage of a Privileged Class’

Revisiting ‘The Rage of a Privileged Class’ by Ells Cose

In "The Rage of a Privileged Class," published in 1993, I argued that many successful black Americans were seething about what they saw as the nation's broken promise of equal opportunity. My book editor found the thesis so shocking that, after reading the manuscript, he asked, "Is this really true?" Its truth was quickly validated by a number of academics, including Joe Feagin and Melvin Sikes ("Living With Racism: The Black Middle-Class Experience," 1994) and Sharon Collins ("Black Corporate Executives: The Making and Breaking of a Black Middle Class," 1996). It was also confirmed by hundreds of professionals who approached me to attest that "Rage" was their story.

Now Barack Obama sits in the highest office of the land, and a series of high-powered African-Americans have soared to the uppermost realms of their professions. The idea of a glass ceiling is almost laughable. Serious thinkers are searching for a new vocabulary to explain an America where skin color is an unreliable marker of status.

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Ellis Cose Publications