The Underclass Question

The American dream will never be a reality for a large number of poor urban blacks. Civil rights legislation and government programs have been unable to move much of this population into the American mainstream. The Underclass Question is a collection of original essays by well-known African-American philosophers. The writers consider philosophical questions raised by the existence in the United States of a group of people whose lives dramatically contradict the belief that social and economic disadvantage can be overcome. The plight of the so-called underclass has given rise to intense debates over what social scientists have termed "the paradox of social progress." This lively and accessible collection is the first full-length philosophical treatment of the underclass debate and one of the few volumes of writings by African-American philosophers.
The essays examine the role of racism in the emergence of the underclass and explore the extent to which public policies should be race based. Challenging certain sociological assumptions about how urban poverty and the urban poor should be viewed, the contributors address William Julius Wilson's controversial work, The Truly Disadvantaged. They discuss whether the underclass is simply a new label for the poor or whether it indeed represents a distinct class. And they ask the following questions: Are there values that are unique to poor urban blacks? What does rap music tell us about the underclass? Do middle class blacks have an obligation toward poor urban blacks? What are the obligations of the American government to the urban poor? What is wrong with the current conception of urban poverty? Addressing these and other questions regarding urban poverty and how it affects public policy, the contributors find that a combination of attitudes and assumptions about the impact of race, class, the economy, government policies, and our conception of citizenship makes it difficult to formulate policies that redress the problems faced by the urban poor.

Bill E. Lawson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Delaware.