Metropolitics

The Black Middle Class, or the Harsh Reality of the American Dream

Sylvie Tissot & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-01-24T06:00:00Z

The suburbs of the United States, once the epicenter of racial segregation, are now home to more African Americans than ever. Drawing on her investigation of the New York suburbs, Orly Clergé demonstrates the considerable heterogeneity and fragility of the Black middle classes in a society structured by racism.
One particularly evocative type of place sums up all the stereotypes of African Americans: Black ghettos. Orly Clergé's book The New Noir seeks to challenge the way Black people in the

- Reviews / United States, suburbs, middle classes, history, racism

Before Redlining and Beyond

Alex B. Hill — 2021-11-02T06:00:00Z

There is a larger story of spatial racism in cities before and beyond redlining. Spatial racism was not limited to a single set of maps, but is embedded within institutions. The long history of spatial racism must be teased out and examined as new data-driven practices generate inequitable opportunity in cities.
Over the past decade, “redlining” has received increasing attention in the popular press and across academic disciplines. Redlining, or the discriminatory practice of denying

- Essays / redlining, racism, spatial racism, neighborhood, residential segregation, segregation, housing, cartography, mapping

Institutional Readings on Zoning

Jamaal Green — 2020-11-20T06:00:00Z

A new edited volume on zoning approaches the subject as a tool of planning, part of a network of institutions and practices that shape US cities.
Zoning is, arguably, the central problematic in US urban planning. If one examines almost any question regarding the physical development of our city regions, zoning often pops up as a major villain. From debates over gentrification to the potential of a Green New Deal, zoning is characterized as a major barrier towards progress, however one may

- Reviews / zoning, urban planning, comprehensive planning, racism, economic development

Create, Don't Destroy: Laying the Foundation for a Public Discourse on Racial Justice in Germany

Janina L. Selzer — 2020-09-15T05:00:00Z

A night of violence left Stuttgart, a usually peaceful German city, with many unanswered questions. While politicians immediately condemned the violence as an attack on liberal democracy, some journalists saw the event as an uprising by young men of color against systemic racism. In this article, Janina Selzer makes a case for moving past these partial framings by accepting the possibility of a chaotic, multifaceted, and intersectional explanation for a destructive night.
In the German

- Essays / violence, Germany, racism, justice, racial justice, race, Stuttgart, riots, urban unrest

Understanding School Closures in Chicago: A Review of Eve Ewing's Ghosts in the Schoolyard

Ryan M. Good — 2019-12-17T06:00:00Z

Eve Ewing's Ghosts in the Schoolyard portrays recent school reform efforts in Chicago through the eyes of those devastated by the imposition of “choice” and “market discipline” in public education.
The great deceit of marketized education reform—and the mass school closures such reforms produce in communities like Chicago's Bronzeville—is the suggestion that the introduction of choice and market discipline can undo histories of racism that have systematically disadvantaged communities of

- Reviews / United States, Chicago, race, racism, school, education, education reform

Organizing Against Projet Gentrification: Housing Activism in a White-Supremacist Landscape in Montreal

Pierce Nettling — 2018-11-27T06:00:00Z

Housing activists in Montreal and Quebec have successfully sought to secure tenant rights and social housing for over 50 years at neighborhood, city and provincial level. Here, Pierce Nettling discusses how the continued reliance of left-wing parties on a white francophone political base mirrors the long-standing and systemic problems of racism in the province.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements Montreal's left-based housing movements are rather unique in North

- Essays / gentrification, housing, racism, social housing, Montreal, public housing, Canada, affordable housing, progressive urban politics, race, mayors, progressive mayors, Quebec

When Does Police Violence Cause Urban Unrest?

Cathy Lisa Schneider — 2017-11-14T06:00:00Z

In the summer of 2014, police killed Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York. Both men were black and unarmed. Both their deaths sparked national outrage. And both cases were turned over to a grand jury whose members failed to indict. But while the first case provoked weeks of violent police–community confrontation, the second initiated constructive political action. Drawing on interviews with people close to both men, Cathy Schneider argues that the difference amounts to the

- Debates / racism, United States, police, New York, violence, brutality, police violence, urban unrest, riots, police accountability, St. Louis, Ferguson, Missouri

Citizen Outsider: Racism, Marginalization, and Immigration in France

Jean Beaman — 2017-05-31T15:28:53Z

As refugee crises have emerged and immigration has increased in many regions of the world, several Western countries have become highly nationalistic, with debates surrounding border control and citizenship often dominating political conversation. But it's not just newcomers who have raised these discussions. Based on her forthcoming book, this piece by Jean Beaman shows how second-generation immigrants from North Africa in France, who are legally French citizens, get treated as outsiders and

- From the Field / France, immigration, banlieue, Île-de-France, ethnicity, Paris region, racism, Paris, suburbs, discrimination, migration, race, citizenship, identity, North Africans, Maghrebi, second generation, marginalization, citizen outsiders, cultural citizenship, nationality

Urban Decline Is Not Natural

Jason Hackworth — 2017-04-11T05:00:00Z

Is urban decline inevitable for cities affected by deindustrialization? While many scholars espouse the idea that it is a normal part of a place's economic life cycle, Jason Hackworth argues that urban decline is not natural, but rather produced, typically by factors that have little to do with economics and everything to do with social and political—and often racial—conflict.
---- Series: Shrinking Cities The fate of formerly industrial cities in the Global North—places like Detroit,

- Essays / racism, Rust Belt, Montreal, race, Detroit, urban decay, shrinking cities, urban decline, social conflict, Global North, Liverpool, Leipzig, Belfast, Duluth, Cleveland, Buffalo

Closed Quarters

William Helmreich — 2016-12-13T06:00:00Z

As we contemplate an era marked by official hostility to fair-housing laws, we would do well to heed the distinction between forced and voluntary segregation. Tracing the construction—both literal and cultural—of the ghetto, Mitchell Duneier's new book is a sensitive guide to the scholarship and history of Jews' and Blacks' intersecting paths through it. William Helmreich reads and reviews the work through his own reflections on contemporary New York City.
In today's world, the word ghetto is

- Reviews / ghetto, gentrification, segregation, racism, United States, New York, discrimination, minorities, race, ghettoization, race relations