[CO Hummer]

I'm a Negro!

Middle-class Negroes are constantly engaged in deferring gratification, an activity which beats abhor. For Negroes who are upwardly mobile deferred gratification is of the utmost importance. Obtaining middle-class status requires hard work and often great sacrifices, as well as planning for the future. For beats, on the other hand, what counts is the "here and now"; it makes no sense to defer any satisfaction since world destruction seems so imminent. Means become all important. Thus in On the Road, Dean says, "We Sal, we gotta go and never stop going till we get there." "Where we going, man?" "I don't know but we gotta go. 10 While differing in the direction of their mobility, beats and middle-class Negroes show a similarity with respect to the acceptance they are granted. People who have been upwardly or downwardly mobile often have trouble being accepted. That Negroes who have moved up from a working-class position may experience difficulty being accepted by middle-class whites (and even old middle-class Negroes) because they are both new arrivals and Negroes is well known. The difficulties often faced by this group in attempting to join country clubs, yacht clubs, some professional associations, and in finding places to live outside of the ghetto all suggest this. However, beats, who have been downwardly mobile, may also experience difficulty in being accepted by their working-class neighbors. Ned Polsky notes that in New York many young Italians "make violent efforts to roll back the beat invasion"; 11 they resent the beats because of their extreme behavior, which the beats assume to be typical of Italians. Beats may have difficulty finding employment when they seek it. In a study of one of the original beat communities, in Venice West, Lipton notes, "those who choose manual labor soon find out that so far as the trades are concerned, breaking into the ranks of labor is never easy or cheap. Joining the proletariat is like trying to join an exclusive club and often quite as expensive, what with trade union initiation fees and numerous qualifications' and restrictions." 12 With a change in a few words this quote would be applicable to Negroes attempting to break into the white middle-class world.