where Negro social isolation has decreased and egalitarian social contacts have increased, one effect undoubtedly has been a rise in aspirations and a heightened sense of deprivation. Because high income and high occupational status are rare among Negroes, the middle-status Negro ranks above most other Negroes and therefore enjoys high prestige in the Negro community. As long as he evaluates his economic status in relation to other Negros, he may be fairly well satisfied, but when he begins to judge his status in relation to white, he ranks himself lower and is less satisfied. To use the hackneyed metaphor, he is no longer a big frog in a little pond but a little frog in a big pong