Harlem: Between Heaven and Hell (review)

Taylor has produced a short but insightful book on contemporary Harlem and its latest arrivals. She analyzes the gentrification of Harlem by the new black middle class ("the black gentry," as Taylor terms them). Through an excellent use of oral interviews, solid historical research, and a not-too-cumbersome theoretical structure that combines anthropological insights with sociological training, Taylor presents the best case study of the new black middle class of the 1990s, and for that matter, of the twenty-first century.

The black middle class has returned to Harlem for many reasons, Taylor points out—the need for relief from the frustrations of working in professional settings where whites do not always value their abilities and the need to reconsider, if not reinvent, their racial identity being two of the more important reasons. Taylor is good at teasing out the complicated motives for the black gentry's return to Harlem. She is equally good at showing the stresses and strains of adjustment for both the newcomers and the longtime residents. Race and class, which are generally intertwined in the larger American society, separate starkly in this predominately black community. Taylor's interviews and analyses confirm that the rethinking of race, the black Diaspora, and even the double-consciousness theorem put forth by Du Bois a century ago are upon us in earnest.¹

It is no irony that the new black middle class that emerged more than a generation ago is leading the way in this effort. What has been missing in scholarship is a sustained focus on how it is pursuing that task. Taylor's clear, lucid, and often vibrant study makes up for the lapse. What is startling, but fascinating, is the heady combination of the traditional service orientation of the old black middle class with the activist/race pride of the civil rights/black power movements in reconstructing a middle-class black identity. This black gentry, while enjoying individually the fruits of their professional achievements, understands the cultural importance of "the communion of fellowship" and political collectivity as the platform for building the good society.

Alas, as Taylor perceptively and wisely notes, "The idea that the black middle-class, as a 'social buffer,' is the answer to the problems of the failing inner city is incomplete at least" (169). America, as a whole, must join in the re-evaluation of race formations and class inequalities in order for the good society to evolve. For now, Taylor offers an excellent study of the new black middle class. We need more studies like hers.