The Changing of The Guard: Class In Session

Class distinctions were once rigid, unbending social structures that one had to be born into. In times past, it was difficult if not impossible to move up or down. Breeding, pedigree, background, education, the right schools, the right colleges, and the right Greek organizations (1906-1913) were all qualifications one must have had to be a member of the black higher classes. Looking at photos from any era, one could judge the subjects class by their clothing. Style was indicative to class. Class then was more of a caste, an immobile structure.

The class structures of today are based solely on family salaries. And though most of the buying power lies in the wallets of the white upper-class, it is the black lower class that spends the most money on fashion. For those who grew up near or around project homes, they may remember that the kids who lived there often wore the latest and most expensive clothes.

One reason for this dis-correlation between earnings and spending is television. The entertainment industry has allowed those who normally wouldnt have been accepted into the upper-class to buy their way up. And those people- athletes, actors, singers, dancers, etc- have in turn brought the upper class back to the hood by influencing its occupants to buy upper-class priced clothing.

So the end result is that most families who survive off (in a year) less than what an upper-class family makes (in a month) will continue to spend money on things that they cant afford to emulate people whom they dont know. Thus, the lower-class will continue to grow poorer and the upper-class, who makes and markets these fashions, will continue to grow richer



                                                                         James R Jones
                                                               jjoneswrites@yahoo.com

The Changing of the Guard: Style Versus Fashion as Defined Within the Rise of the Black Middle Class

Though most people within the black diaspora share a common history and heritage, our views on that history and heritage are skewed and separated due to our varying memberships within the class structures of our society. Though believed to be a reconstruction-period invention, the black middle class, and higher social classes still, extend as far back as the beginning of time-in Africa.

To know that we are a people with such a vast history is also to know that both style and fashion have played a major part of our culture since its ancient origins. Within every class structure, there has always existed a standard of dress which defined and divided the classes.

In modern times, it would seem that those standards have all but disappeared. The Old Guard of yesterday, a formal society consisting of top hats, pearls, silk gowns, canes, tuxedo jackets, shawls, and wingtips is being replaced with the The New Guard of today, a shapeless mass of people prone to jeans, graphic Ts, stilettos, Timberland boots, and gaudy diamonds.

When looking at the relaxed standards of dress between the classes, the question arises: Is our clothing defined by our social class? Another question can also be pondered: Does our belonging to a particular class dictate our wardrobes.

I am not an expert on fashion. But I am an expert on literature. In the African American Literature genre, our peoples travels from Africa, to Europe, to Asia, to the Carribean, and to America have been documented. Within the pages of these books also lies the testimony that clothing was essential to our culture.

Looking back allows us to look at now. And perhaps if we knew of our rise, we would understand where and how we fell- with style and fashion that is. Also, we would understand that the things we put on daily do, or at least once did, speak volumes of our backgrounds, families, home sizes, cars, back accounts, cattle heads, and yams stored in barns.