I've been thinking recently about this and it has been bugging me a fair bit. Out of all my mates, it's only my white and Asian friends (but Asians less than whites) who consider themselves working class. Pretty much all my black friends (be they West Indian or African) don't consider themselves working class.
This isn't because they're not. They definately are working class (live on council estates, claim benefits, never in regular employment etc) but they just don't see themselves like that.
This reminded me of an interview I read with 50 Cent where he said that "if a working class person said they're 'Gonna Get Rich or Die Tryin' you say they're determined. If a street person says it, you say they're crazy". My reaction to this was "You muppet, street people ARE working class!" But it's not like his view is isolated. My black mates call themselves everything from ghetto to gutter to povertised (our own word, we know it ain't real) but never working class. My white and Asian mates use all those words.
So why do people think this is? I've got my own (unclear) thoughts but I've gotta leave now to meet some mates (Latinas - both say they're working class).