In Chapter 3, Taylor opens with a discussion of the murder of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Baltimore police’s frequent and noted engagement in violent behavior against Black people. What distinguishes Baltimore from other cities where well-known instances of police murder of unarmed Black people have taken place is that the city is run by a Black political establishment. The fact introduces Taylor’s claim that the unprecedented growth of the Black political class has done little to change the material conditions, consequences, and experiences of ordinary Black Americans. In fact, Taylor asserts, Black political elites function as the interlocutors between the political establishment and the Black population because they have the unique capability of disciplining ordinary Black citizens in a way that their white counterparts cannot. They do so under the guise of racial solidarity, while invoking Black stereotypes and maintaining the American Dream myth that absolves the system of culpability for the conditions of Black life. Taylor’s aim in Chapter 3 is to explore the rise of the Black elite class and its consequences for poor and working-class Black people.

The integration of Black politicians into the mainstream political apparatus coincided with the effort to build a small Black middle class through government employment and technical/professional employment.