"New Black Overclass"

Make of this what you will but I received an email from EbonyJet/CNBC about an hour-long program airing this evening, Feb. 26th about our "new black overclass".

Well, setting aside the worrying similarity to the word "overlord" and the idea of a new and higher level of elites, is this really what Rahm Emmanual meant as a conversaton?


This is the text of the email I received:

In its next CNBC Original, CNBC takes viewers inside the growing class of young, self-made black multimillionaires - mostly under 40 - who have built wealth and influence in the sports, entertainment, and media industries. The journey to the black overclass, black America's new financial elite, is often filled with vast opportunity, but even greater pressure to help family and community. In one-on-one interviews with the celebrities, called "NEWBOs," Lee Hawkins takes us inside the experience of high-profile athletes and entertainers, discussing the implications of their sudden wealth and fame and their transition from the underclass or working class to wealthy class in a matter of a few years.

Now I am the first in line to cheer success, especially the rise of those who started with so many strikes against them. Success via overcoming challenges is a cherished American value and classic story.

But this TV program is nothing but an hour-long plug for Lee Hawkins book, "Newbos: The rise of America's New Black Overclass". Since when does that count as news? And why hasn't CNBC given my husband an hour's worth of airtime for his book, "Really Inconvienent Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophe's Liberals Don't Want You To Know About Because They Helped Caused Them."

Oh wait, I think I answered my own question.

I'm not sure what Lee Hawkins hopes to achieved with this book title other than being provokative. I do believe describing one group of people by their ethnicity and claiming "overclass" status for them could be taken as racist. But maybe that's just me (and Webster's Ninth New Collegiate).