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The Rage of a Privileged Class is a revelatory, highly original exploration of a neglected aspect of our nation’s greatest and most enduring problem. With measured eloquence, Ellis Cose shows that even for the black middle class, which has worked hard and played by the rules, the American dream is still a dream deferred.
“A disciplined, graceful exposition of a neglected aspect of the subject of race in America.”
–New York Times Book Review
“Cose’s book is not only a wholly positive contribution to the dialogue on race in America, but an essential one”
–Los Angeles Times
“We live in the same cities, but don’t talk to each other. White Americans don’t have a clue why successful blacks are so angry. And black Americans don’t fathom why we don’t understand their rage. Without screeching, Ellis Cose invites us to share the startling experiences of this ‘privileged class.” In the process, he realizes a more majestic purpose, which is to launch an honest dialogue between blacks and whites, a dialogue that first requires that we listen. The listening process should begin with this mighty book.”
–Ken Auletta, author, journalist
“With passion and precision, Ellis Cose chronicles the reasons for the frustrations felt by many successful African Americans. The Rage of a Privileged Class does for middle-class blacks what The Feminine Mystique did for women. It should become a classic.”
–Eddie Williams, President, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
“With a journalistic eye and a philosopher’s imagination, Ellis Cose exposes the contradictions in amiable mainstream assumptions about racial progress. Cose bears eloquent witness to the largely invisible experience of middle-class blacks who have gained material success at a huge cost to their psychic well-being. His book empowers an entire generation to tell their own story and enlightens all of us by revealing this peculiarly American dilemma.”
–Prof. Lani Guinier, Harvard University Law School