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African-American Social Status

19 February 2008

Last week, I covered the Condoleezza Rice section of the African-American Culture Study. Today, we examine what items are most important to social status in the African-American community. We found that bling isn’t a significant status symbol. A stable family and a solid education are most important. Clothes, jewelry and cars were all ranked at the bottom of the list.

When we asked our African-American panel to rank from most to least the items that are important to social standing, here are their answers:

31% said a stable family was most important to social standing. 59% ranked it in their top three
25% said education was most important to social standing. 60% ranked it in their top three
16% said income was most important to social standing. 56% ranked it in their top three
7% said career was most important to social standing. 54% ranked it in their top three
6% said home ownership was most important to social standing. 27% ranked it in their top three
6% said clothes were most important to social standing. 14% ranked it in their top three
5% said their car was most important to social standing. 17% ranked it in their top three
2% said jewelry was most important to social standing. 9% ranked it in their top three
1% said weight (body image) was most important to social standing. 3% ranked it in their top three

If you would like to see the full results of the African-American Culture Study, please visit www.theafricanamericanvoice.com.