My friend Kris Marsh, who was a post-doctoral scholar here at UNC and is now on the faculty at U. of Maryland at College Park, is featured in a Washington Post story on the Black middle class in Prince George’s County, MD.
The story is about the growing presence of unmarried Black women in the county’s middle class. Kris is an expert in more ways than one, since her research also tracks the Black middle class.
When she was here, she (along with me and several others) published a paper on the growing presence of “Single And Living Alone” households among the Black middle class.
We counted people as middle class according to these criteria:
- Someone in the household graduated 4-year college
- Living in own home (not renting)
- Per-person income above the Black median.
- Highest occupation in household exceeds Black median.
Among the Black middle class defined this way, SALAs are a growing presence, especially among those under 35.
Source: New graph from the paper.
The Post article focuses on the local concentration of SALAs in P.G. County. It’s also good timing for the release of Kris’s latest article (with John Iceland), on residential segregation among SALA households.
Family Inequality 