Class, Race, and Symbolic Community

Abstract

In a quantitative analysis of class consciousness, race is shown to be one of the important determinants. Erik Olin Wright's exploitative asset-based theory of class structure is critiqued because it does not take sufficient account of race as it shapes the class content of consciousness. This paper proposes that blacks in the United States constitute a symbolic community with a strong component of working class consciousness rooted in an experience with, and an awareness of oppression and exploitation. In bi- and multivariate analyses race produces cross-class effects on class consciousness. African-Americans in different class locations tend to have more pro-working class consciousness than their white counterparts.