Black Politics in Transition Immigration, Suburbanization, and Gentrification Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Politics and Policy Series

Black Politics in Transition considers the impact of three transformative forces?immigration, suburbanization, and gentrification?on Black politics today. Demographic changes resulting from immigration and ethnic blending are dramatically affecting the character and identity of Black populations throughout the US. Black Americans are becoming more ethnically diverse at the same time that they are sharing space with newcomers from near and far. In addition, the movement of Black populations out of the cities to which they migrated a generation ago?a reverse migration to the American South, in some cases, and in other cases a movement from cities to suburbs shifts the locus of Black politics. At the same time, middle class and white populations are returning to cities, displacing low income Blacks and immigrants alike in a renewal of gentrification. All this makes for an important laboratory of discovery among social scientists, including the diverse range of authors represented here. Drawing on a wide array of disciplinary perspectives and methodological strategies, original chapters analyze the geography of opportunity for Black Americans and Black politics in accessible, jargon-free language. Moving beyond the Black?white binary, this book explores the tri-part relationship among Blacks, whites, and Latinos as well. Some of the most important developments in Black politics are happening at state and local levels today, and this book captures that for students, scholars, and citizens engaged in this dynamic milieu.

Introduction: Black Flight

Candis Watts Smith

Part I All in the Family?: The Political Dynamics of Black Ethnic Immigration and Diversification

Chapter 1 African American, Black Ethnic, and Dominican Political Relations in Contemporary New York City

Sharon D. Wright Austin

Chapter 2 Black Immigration and Ethnic Respectability: A Tale of Two Cities, New York and Los Angeles

Cory Charles Gooding

Part II Black (In)Visibility: New Insights on Majority-Minority Cities

Chapter 3 A Sanctuary for Whom?: Race, Immigration, and the Black Public Sphere

Niambi M. Carter

Chapter 4 The Three Dimensions of Political Incorporation: Black Politics in a Majority-Minority City

Andrea Benjamin

Part III Keeping Up with the Joneses: The Politics of Black Suburbanites

Chapter 5 The Needles in the Haystack: Assessing the Effects of Time, Place, and Class on Blacks in Majority-White Suburbs

Ernest B. McGowen III

Chapter 6 Black Come-Outers and the Counterpublic: How Suburbanization is Diversifying Black Attitudes

Reuel R. Rogers

Part IV There Goes the Neighborhood: The Complexities of Racialized Neighborhood Change

Chapter 7 Moving Up, Out, and Across the Country: Regional Differences in the Causes of Neighborhood Change and its Effect on African Americans

Jessica Lynn Stewart

Chapter 8 "People were not as friendly as I had hoped": Black Residential Experiences in Two Multiracial Neighborhoods

Sarah Mayorga-Gallo

Conclusion: Where Do We Go from Here?

Christina M. Greer

Candis Watts Smith is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She also has affiliations with the Department of African and African American Diaspora Studies and Department of Political Science.

Christina M. Greer is Associate Professor of Political Science and American Studies at Fordham University. She also has affiliations with the Urban Studies Program and American Studies Department.