Michael’s take on how budget cuts will change the black middle class, in Room for Debate at the New York Times.

We are entering a period when for blacks there is a dangerous and growing confluence of severe economic hardship and dashed hopes.

It is no coincidence that during the economic crisis there has been a steep decline in blacks’ hopes for racial equality. Historically, the foundation for black income gains in the middle 20th century were based not only on the movement of what had been a largely Southern agrarian population into unionized manufacturing jobs, but also a parallel movement of blacks into the public sector — a sector that saw far smaller income disparities by race than the private sector.

See the full discussion.