New Books in Sociology Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia
May 7, 2026
Dr. Angela Simms, assistant professor of sociology and urban studies and author of Fighting for a Foothold, studies Black middle-class suburbia and metropolitan inequality. She discusses Prince George’s County’s fiscal struggles, how historical policies and market practices limit public goods, retail redlining and investment barriers, and policy ideas like regional coordination, revenue reforms, and reparative investments.
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Why Prince George's Is A Crucial Case
- Prince George's County is an extreme-case test of whether Black political power and middle-class status overcome historical racial disadvantage.
- Angela Simms chose it because it has the highest concentration of Black middle-class residents and Black-led local government since the 1990s, revealing persistent structural limits.
Race As The Foundational Ordering Principle
- Race functions as the defining social status shaping access to resources in the U.S., because founders engineered social order to privilege whiteness as property.
- Simms connects early settler capitalism, slavery, and legal structures to why racial hierarchy remains central today.
Public Goods Are The Hidden Foundation
- Public goods and services are the material foundation of everyday life and require continuous public investment.
- Simms emphasizes roads, water, schools and maintenance as invisible infrastructure whose underfunding reveals fiscal and racial inequities.
