This exploratory study makes a contribution to the literature on
antiracism by unpacking the cultural categories through which everyday
antiracism is experienced and practiced by extraordinarily successful
African Americans. Using a phenomenological approach, we focus on
processes of classification to analyze the criteria that members of the
African American elite mobilize to compare racial groups and establish
their equality. We first summarize results from earlier work on the
antiracist strategies of White and African American workers. Second,
drawing upon in-depth interviews with members of the Black elite, we show
that demonstrating intelligence and competence, and gaining knowledge, are
particularly valued strategies of equalization, while religion has a
subordinate role within their antiracist repertoire. Thus, gaining
cultural membership is often equated with educational and occupational
attainment. Antiracist strategies that value college education and
achievement by the standards of American individualism may exclude many
poor and working-class African Americans from cultural membership. In this
way, strategies of equalization based on educational and professional
competence may prove dysfunctional for racial solidarity.