The Metropolis in Black & White

by Galster, George C.; Hill, Edward W.

• ISBN13: 9780882851389
• ISBN10: 0882851381
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-08-01
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Center for Urban

Summary

The Metropolis in Black and White highlights a stark fact: America's metropolitan areas are more polarized along racial lines than at any time since the mid-1960s. Though urban areas have become multicultural, the editors argue that blackwhite racial differences will outlast ethnic differences in metropolitan America and that the race issue in most urban areas is perceived as a blackwhite one. Galster and Hill perceive that the theme of place, power, and polarization is most powerful when blacks and whites are contrasted. African Americans, on average, are the poorest, most segregated, most disadvantaged urban racial (or ethnic) group, because they are deeply entangled in the web of interrelationships connecting place, power, and polarization. Since these interrelationships form a comprehensive set of social structures that oppress African Americans, they can be judged to be racist at their core. Race, not merely class, continues to play a pivotal role in shaping urban African Americans. In clear analyses, the contributors examine employment, income, the underclass, education, housing, health and mortality, political participation, and racial politics. Intertwined themes of spatial isolation, political empowerment, and racial disparities-place, power, and polarization-guide the analyses. This is a vital text for courses in urban affairs, American studies, economics, geography, sociology, political science, urban planning, and racial and ethnic studies.

Table of Contents

Figures
Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
Overview
Place, Power, and Polarization: Introduction	p. 1
The Kerner Commission Twenty Years Later	p. 19
Description and Analysis of the Issues
The Nature and Dimensions of the Underclass	p. 39
What Happened to African-American Wages in the 1980s?	p. 56
Changing Black Employment Patterns	p. 72
The (Un)Housed City: Racial Patterns of Segregation, Housing Quality and Affordability	p. 93
Race and Inner-City Education	p. 108
The Persistence of Differing Trends in African-American Mortality and Morbidity Rates	p. 128
Leadership and Race in the Administrative City: Building and Maintaining Direction for Justice in Complex Urban Networks	p. 143
Racial Politics and Black Power in the Cities	p. 166
Policy Prescriptions
A Cumulative Causation Model of the Underclass: Implications for Urban Economic Development Policy	p. 190
The Underclass: Causes and Responses	p. 216
From Caste to Class to Caste: The Changing Nature of Race Relations in America	p. 236
New Directions in Housing Policy for African-Americans	p. 258
The Case for Racial Integration	p. 270
Obstacles to Housing Integration Program Efforts	p. 286
Policy Prescriptions for Inner-City Public Schooling	p. 306
Race and the American City: Living the American Dilemma	p. 336
Beyond Black and White: Multicultural Understanding and the Sharing of Power	p. 356
Suggested Further Readings	p. 373
About the Authors	p. 383
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