Dr. Karyn R. Lacy

Dr. Karyn Lacy, author of Blue-Chip Black: Race, Class, and Status in the New Black Middle Class, is a sociologist at the University of Michigan. She is an expert on the black middle class, with a focus on assimilation, suburbanization, identity, inequality, and racism. Her writing explores the relationship between race and social class in America. Lacy’s award-winning book reveals the demands and joy of everyday life for middle-class blacks living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Her current research focuses on how race and class are reinforced in a children's social organization. Lacy’s public writing appears in the New York Times, USA Today, Vox, NBC News, Public Seminar, and the Chronicle. Dr. Lacy received her B.A. from Oberlin College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.