CSUEB professor explains why the black middle class is in peril, Feb. 2

• January 29, 2013 5:00am

Benjamin Bowser, professor emeritus of sociology at Cal State East Bay, will discuss “The Black Middle Class: Social Mobility – and Vulnerability,” on Feb. 2 as part of Black History Month.

The American middle class is in peril, particularly the African-American middle class. Bowser will examine the historic context for this situation, and outline the issues, threats and questions surrounding a new, still developing middle class, and the role African-Americans will play.

Bowser most recently published Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost: Exploiting Hip Hop and Using Racial Stereotypes to Entertain America (Amherst, N.Y: Cambria Press) and with Paul Lovejoy (eds.) The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery: New Directions in Teaching and Learning (Trenton and London: Africa World Press).  His first textbook will be published later in 2013, Understanding Alcohol and Drug Abuse: Global Views (London: Palgrave MacMillan). 

This event is sponsored by the Hayward Area History Association and is free to the public. Bowser’s lecture will begin at 5:00pm on Feb. 2 at the Palma Ceia Baptist Church 28605 Ruus Road, Hayward. 

For more information, visit haywardareahistory or call (510) 581-0223.

KL