Then the wealthy have left their ghettos

Back, it is almost a clone of Barack Obama. Same speed, same hair shaved short, it is just a little more small. Interviewed in the primaries of Nashville, Harold Ford Jr. is faced with ease to the camera... it is a regular columnist for the cable channel MSNBC. Former member of the Tennessee, 38 years old, it is now the President of the Democratic Leadership Council (current of the Democratic Party) after having missed a seat in the Senate of the United States in 2006. His father, Harold Ford SR., was a long time member of the electoral district of Memphis, that his son has briguée after him. The family is well established in the political sphere after an ancestor him provided comfortable engaging in the business of funeral directors.

Harold Ford Jr. is the representative of a black bourgeoisie to ancient roots, which began to emerge around a small core of slaves free in the South of the country. In Georgia, South Carolina, as early as the 1800s, some former slaves are allowed to work for the money and ownership. From the war of secession (1861-1865), they have access to education through some religious groups that have opened schools and universities. The first black Senator will be elected in Mississippi in 1870. Some dynasties of famous black American families will create and settle in the most progressive cities in the South: Atlanta, Washington, Nashville, Memphis... and in the North later: Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia. This is not a coincidence if most of them have elected black mayors. Many of the members of the bourgeoisie are bankers, insurers, owners of newspapers or real estate, physicians, dentists, lawyers or contractors. The first millionaire woman in the country, in the 1800s, will be black: v. j. Walters is enriched by the cosmetics. This small elite wealthy, very attached to the expression of his social status, still form a caste apart and very closed in the American black community, as Lawrence Otis Graham tells in his book, "our kind of people". They have their home in Martha's Vineyard, as the Kennedy...

"Glass ceilings" broken

By contrast, "Barack Obama is the emblem of the emergence of an African-American professional class which has achieved this status through education and experience," observed Thomas Shapiro, Professor at Brandeis University. It is part of the first generation born at the time of the civil rights movement, in the 1960s, when the doors of universities opened much larger to people of color. Until then, while segregation still prevailed in the United States, "professional" black Americans were overwhelmingly teachers and nurses and was barely 100,000 small black business in the country. Like of a Michelle Robinson-Obama whose parents were not at the University , educated at Princeton and then at Harvard, and a Barack Obama, a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard, of many Americans today men came to a standard of living and professional responsibilities well above those of their parents. "My life is that of the American dream," a custom repeat Michelle Obama. "My story would have been impossible in any other country," said her husband during the entire campaign.

Before them, many "glass ceilings" were broken. Colin Powell was the first black to become Minister for Foreign Affairs, a position now occupied by Condoleezza Rice. The highest positions in the corporate world conquered: Ken Chenault is CEO of American Express, Richard Parsons is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Time Warner. Sheila Crump Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television with her ex-husband and owner of three teams of sport in Washington (hockey and basketball), was the first billionaire of the community. "The power of the Black elite is rooted in his accomplishments, not in his birth", observes Tom Shapiro. Between 1960 and 1990, the number of Americans to exercise until then reserved for white trades was multiplied by ten. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 51 of black Americans belong to the middle class, including 23 to a wealthy professional bourgeoisie. "She was only 13 in the 1970s and the educated professional class is relatively new," observes Bart Landry, Professor at the University of Maryland and author of "The New Black Middle Class." By comparison, 61 of whites are identified with the middle class, of which 32 are part of a professional high class.

In 2003, in an article in "Fortune", Earl Graves, the founder of the magazine "Black enterprise", pointed out that the American black community represented "an income greater than $ 600 billion, which would place the 9th or 10th among the countries in the world."

It is now a market of 896 billion consumers. This young bourgeoisie, or "afristocratie" according to some, even its fallen as Stanley has O'Neal, former Merrill Lynch boss, ousted at the end of 2007.

Multiple métissages

Curiously, other than a few emblematic figures of the world media and entertainment as the producer of television Oprah Winfrey, the athletes as the show-biz people are not included in this professional aristocracy. "In fact, until shortly, they were held out the same way that the English aristocracy ignores them", note Susan Fales-Hill, a New York television producer, indispensable member of high society in Manhattan. Daughter of Timothy Fales, descendant of a white bankers on Wall Street, and Josephine Premice family, a famous actress in Broadway of Haitian origin, it is part of this more and more multicultural Black elite, whose ranks have swollen by entrepreneurs of the Caribbean.

According to a survey published by Pew Research end of 2007, black Americans have more and more difficult to consider that they form a homogeneous racial group, even if white blend them willingly. "Whether you're a Tiger Woods or a Barack Obama, the company returns the image of an African-American while the reality is more complex," said Thomas Shapiro. The first is from multiple métissages (is a quarter Chinese, one quarter Thai, a quarter African-American, one-eighth Indian American and Dutch eighth), the second is son of a Kenyan and a white of Kansas. By marrying Michelle Robinson, "he enrolled in the traditional African American community and has married its rites and beliefs." Pastor Wright was pastor of the family of his wife. "Break with him has been difficult because it required him to stand out from this group of people", said Sheri Parks, author of a book entitled "Fierce Angels: the Strong Black American Women in American Life and Culture", to be published in 2009 by Random House. In a deeply Christian nation, the Black elite to distinguish from the rest of the community in being a member of the Episcopal or Presbyterian, sometimes Methodist Church... rarely Baptist or evangelical.

"A powerful symbol.

Requires that segregation, African Americans have lived together for years, all mixed social conditions. Then, the wealthy have left their "ghettos". But they have tended to regroup again, their financial resources and their social status in the us. "They have to fight against racism throughout the day, they do not want to do at night," provides Sheri Parks. The more affluent counties that bring together the black bourgeoisie are Prince George's County, Washington, D.C., and DeKalb County, next to Atlanta. "This new generation search success, but more integration desired by their parents, leaving the civil rights movement, note Bart Landry." They want only a good quality of life and a good future for their children. "A very core of this professional class are also in Chicago, when the Black elite in the business block behind Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett, the President of the society of real estate Habitat, Member of the staff of the Democratic candidate.

Black Americans are much mobilized for the campaign. "You really want help him succeed." "It is a powerful symbol and represents what the community has fought," said Ron Walters, former Director of campaign of Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988. Many went to vote in advance, as the Act authorized in some States.

But Barack Obama conducted a neutral campaign on the issue of race and this has been criticized. "He talks about economic policy to white and personal responsibility to black, we would like respect for voters who will represent 15 of the vote," said Ron Walters. The Democratic candidate has corrected shooting with a speech on the theme of the race before the National Urban League in Philadelphia, unanimously applauded, and another before the National Conference of mayors in Florida. But many are ready to satisfy the symbol that would be the first Black President of the United States U.S. ' he carries the election, "this will be a new indicator of progress and success for the black community", says Bart Landry. "It will provide an image of black Americans is familiar to us, but that is not to the dominant culture," provides Sheri Parks. His favorite campaign photo is a smiling Michelle Obama, face, with her husband which rumored to his ear. "I had never seen a picture like this in the media." They are happy, loving, elegant, we guess it's brilliant people, it is a very distant photo of stereotypes of our community.