My father was a middle-class black. Though he was born poor, he achieved middle-class standing through much hard work and sacrifice (one of his favorite words) and by identifying fully with solid middle-class values—mainly hard work, family life, property ownership, and education for his children (all four of whom have advanced degrees). In his mind these were not so much values as laws of nature. People who embodied them made up the positive images in his class identification. The negative images came largely from the blacks he had left behind because they were “going nowhere.”
Whether I live up to these values or not, I know that my acceptance of them is the result of lifelong conditioning. I know also that I share this conditioning with middle-class people
of all races and that I can no more easily be free of it than I can be free of my race. For the middle-class black, conditioned by these values from birth, the sense of meaning they provide is as immutable as the color of his skin.
It has always annoyed me to hear from the mouths of certain arbiters of blackness that middle-class blacks should “reach back” and pull up those blacks less fortunate than they—as though middle-class status were an unearned and essentially passive condition in which one needed a large measure of noblesse oblige to occupy one’s time. My own image is of reaching back from a moving train to lift on board those who have no tickets. A nobel enough sentiment—but might it not be wiser to show them the entire structure of principles, effort, and sacrifice that puts one in a position to buy a ticket any time one likes? This, I think, is something members of the black middle class can realistically offer to other blacks. Their example is not only a testament to possibility but also a lesson in method. But they cannot lead by example until they are released from a black identity that regards that example as suspect, that sees them as “marginally” black, indeed that holds them back by catching them in a double bind.
我的父亲是一个中产阶级的黑人。虽然他是天生的穷人，但他通过努力的工作和牺牲（他最喜欢的词之一）以及通过完全认同坚实的中产阶级价值观——主要包括：努力工作，重视家庭生活，拥有私人财产，注重子女的教育（所有四个孩子都获得硕士以上学位），成为了大部分中产阶级中的一员。在他的心中这些价值观念如同自然法则一样有价值。那些体现这些价值观念的人们在他的所属阶级认同中树立了良好的形象。负面的形象主要是被父亲抛在身后的底层黑人，因为他们碌碌无为。
我是否能够实现这些价值，我知道我能接受这些是终身熏陶效果。我也知道，我和所有种族的中产阶级的人，我摆脱它的约束和我自由脱离我的种族一样困难。对于中产阶级的黑人，从出生起就受到这些价值观念的约束，人们提供的意义解释就像我的肤色是黑色的一样永恒不变。
它总是使我很恼火，听到从某些黑暗仲裁者的嘴中产阶级黑人应该“达到”，并拉起那些不如他们幸运的黑人。好像他们中产阶级的地位是一个不劳而获的，基本上是被动的条件，一个需要在其一生中占用的较多时间的贵人举止。我自己的形象达到在行驶中的火车上提拔地板上那些没有票的人。足够高尚的情绪，但它会不会是更为明智的做法？展示给他们的原则，努力和牺牲整个结构，使人固定在一个位置，任何时候你喜欢买一张票吗？这个，我想，是黑人中产阶级的一些成员可以真实地给提供其他的黑人。他们不仅是一个证明的可能性，也是方法上一个借鉴。但他们不能以身作则，直到他们对从一个黑人身份怀疑中释放出来，看到他们卑微的五点，确实这使他们陷入到他们进退两难的境地。
