Robert Gregg The Afro-American middle class in the first half of this century had close familial, political and social ties to other African Americans, and stressed bourgeois values like promoting self-help, upliftment and sobriety. The contemporary Afro-American middle class, in contrast, derives its position from greater income levels which have created a social distance between it and its urban poor brethren.. Nevertheless, despite its economic improvement, the new Afro-American middle class faces racial discrimination and bigotry which is forcing it towards separatist nationalism. Thus, despite their desperate desire to escape the ghetto, racial discrimination and changes within the American economy threaten the new African American middle class in ways that force its members to consider the plight of those who remain in the ghetto.
