Metropolitics

Discrimination and Everyday Politicization in Working-Class Neighborhoods in France

Marion Carrel & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-10-08T05:00:00Z

Drawing on a collective study, Marion Carrel highlights how experiences of discrimination structure people's relationship with politics in working-class neighborhoods. The everyday politicization resulting from these experiences, stifled by institutions, is key to explaining the unrest that followed the death of Nahel Merzouk in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre on June 27, 2023.
On June 27, 2023, in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris, a youngster aged 17, Nahel Merzouk, was killed at

- Debates / discrimination, émeutes, politisation, police, quartiers populaires

¡Yo soy Boricua! Identity-related work and collective elevation strategies among New York Puerto Ricans

Audrey Célestine & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-05-05T05:00:00Z

Puerto Ricans in New York City form a minority group in the struggle against discrimination. Audrey Célestine shows how this group is reappropriating the self-segregation imposed by the institutions on the model of the mutual aid of the African American and Hispanic communities.
As American citizens of a territory that had been colonized since the end of the 19th century, Puerto Ricans settled in New York suffered from poverty and racism. Like all populations that have migrated to the United

- From the Field / Puerto Rico, New York, identité, inégalités, discrimination

Depending on a Curse: What History Tells Us About Property-Tax Reform in New York City

Daniel Wortel-London — 2022-07-12T05:00:00Z

Daniel Wortel-London discusses New York's discriminatory policies and taxes and asks: can a tax system as cumbersome as New York's possibly be changed? And if it can, what unanticipated consequences might follow?
For decades, New York's local government has inflicted upon its people both discriminatory policies and discriminatory taxes. This discrimination takes two forms. On the one hand, New York taxes different classes of property at different rates. Single-family homes made up 51.27% of

- Debates / taxation, tax reform, real estate, New York, housing, discrimination, property

How the Youth of the Banlieues See the Gilets Jaunes

2020-04-24T05:00:00Z

Do the “Yellow Vests” and the youth of France's banlieues share a common vision of the inequalities and discrimination that divide contemporary societies? A roundtable discussion organized as part of research on participation in working-class neighborhoods sheds light on the ambivalent views that certain young people in these areas have regarding the Gilets Jaunes movement.
Since the beginning of the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) movement, in October 2018, a number of commentators have noted

- From the Field / banlieue, suburbs, gilets jaunes, youth, collective action, mobilization, working-class neighborhoods, working classes, demonstrations, protest, discrimination, Paris region, Île-de-France, France, Paris

The Treatment of “North Africans” in 1960s Urban Renewal in France

Janoé Vulbeau & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-02-01T06:00:00Z

While France's 1960s urban renewal has been studied in terms of its effects on the working classes, its racial dimension has rarely been highlighted. Janoé Vulbeau examines two neighborhoods in the northern cities of Lille and Roubaix, considered in light of Henri Coing's pioneering Paris study, and shows how the development of what amounts to a settlement policy was partly based on the grouping together of, and discrimination against, “North Africans.”
The urban-renewal policies implemented

- Essays / France, immigration, urban renewal, Algerian War, discrimination, Roubaix, Lille, settlement, population, Hauts-de-France, Northern France, decolonization, Nord–Pas-de-Calais

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

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

Federal Anti-Segregation Milestones Demand Local Mobilization

Justin Steil — 2015-11-24T06:00:00Z

In June 2015, the US Supreme Court affirmed a legal tool that stands to hold municipalities and lenders accountable to fair housing and residential integration goals. In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a rule that offers new points of leverage in the fair-housing planning process. However, both will require sustained mobilization if they are to have any real impact.
The past year has witnessed the most vigorous public discussion of residential segregation and

- From the Field / segregation, housing, United States, discrimination, supreme court, fair housing, residential segregation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, mobilization, redlining

Disarm the Police

Gregory Smithsimon — 2015-09-29T05:00:00Z

In the current political debates about discriminatory policing, there has been a lack of serious discussion of disarmament. Gregory Smithsimon argues that disarming the police is not only an obvious way to avoid more deaths at the hands of officers, but also a means towards cultivating more respectful relationships between the police and communities of color.
Responding to protests against repeated, blatant police abuse, politicians have met demands for meaningful change with an array of

- Debates / inequalities, police, discrimination, violence, brutality, disarmament, civil rights, police violence, Ferguson, Missouri, New York, Oakland, Baltimore, Featured

Ethnic discrimination in social housing

François Bonnet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-03-12T05:50:00Z

Valérie Sala Pala has investigated the extent to which ethnic criteria come into play in the allocation of social housing in Marseille in France and in Birmingham in England. In her recent book, she presents a detailed analysis of discriminatory processes that questions the usefulness of the notion of racism.
Valérie Sala Pala's book considers the way in which ethnic criteria are employed in the allocation of social housing in Marseille (in France, the nation of republican universalism) and

- Reviews / France, housing, racism, Marseille, social housing, United Kingdom, discrimination, minorities, Birmingham (UK), race, England