Encoding and Decoding Black and White Cultural Capitals: Black Middle-Class Experiences. (March 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Meghji, Ali
• Is Part Of: Cultural sociology. Volume 13:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 19
• Publication Date: 2019-03
• Subjects: black cultural capital -- black middle class -- cultural capital -- cultural studies -- race and class; Sociology -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals; 306
• DOI: 10.1177/1749975517741999
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1749-9755

Abstract

Drawing upon 23 qualitative interviews, and ethnographic work in London, this article explores how black middle-class individuals in the UK decode forms of middle-class cultural capital. This decoding is two staged. Firstly, black middle-class individuals often decode dominant or 'traditional' middle-class cultural capital as white. This involves a recognition that certain forms of middle-class cultural capital are marked as racially exclusive, and are reproduced and recognised in 'white spaces'. Secondly, black middle-class individuals also decode alternative forms of cultural capital as woven into a greater project of racial uplift. Such alternative forms of cultural capital are defined as 'black cultural capital', and tend to be based around fulfilling a cultural politics of black representation.