Schools and roads as bargaining power in community protests in predominantly black communities

2017 ◽  
pp. 86-123
Keyword(s):  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Community Protests

scholarly journals Violence and Community: Collective and Cultural Trauma in Black America

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Yu
Keyword(s):  
Jim Crow ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Collective Trauma ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Black America ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
National Conversation ◽  
Pastoral Response ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between law enforcement and predominantly black communities has been characterized by mistrust, violence, and victimization. Recently, this issue has entered into the national conversation, sparked by the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Samuel Dubose, Tamir Rice, Laquan McDonald, and countless other black individuals. The present paper presents the experience of black communities in the United States as an experience of collective and communal trauma. First, collective trauma is conceptualized and distinguished from individual trauma writ large from a sociological perspective with Ignacio Martin Baró and Jeffrey Alexander. Communal trauma is a phenomenon that is different than individual trauma because of its social and communal implications. Next, the experience of black communities in light of consistent patterns of police violence is named as collective trauma. Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow will be used, as well as Atlantic correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates. The final section proposes a pastoral response to the communal trauma of Black communities, divided into two parts. The first is a look inwards towards organized Christianity’s complicity in the terrorism of Black communities and the benefits that are gained from their subjugation, and the second looks outwards, proposing a stance of solidarity, courage, and righteous indignation that actively works towards the liberation of marginalized communities.

Improvising against the racial state in Atlanta: Reimagining agency in environmental justice

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110389
Author(s):  
Richard Milligan ◽  
Tyler McCreary ◽  
Na’Taki Osborne Jelks
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
State Recognition ◽  
Strategic Innovation ◽  
Community Organizers ◽  
Movement Strategy ◽  
Urban Creeks ◽  
The Relationship

Recent scholarship on environmental justice highlights a concern about the relationship between the racial state and social movement strategy. This paper addresses the ingenuity of environmental justice organizing in the Proctor Creek and South River watersheds of Atlanta, Georgia, each home to predominantly Black communities and unjust flows of toxicants and sewage through urban creeks, streams, and rivers. We begin from critiques of the failure of institutionalized environmental justice and the state’s role in maintaining environmental racisms. To examine organizing responses to these circumstances, we analyze the improvisational politics of social movements in the context of the racial state, theoretically drawing from Charles Lee’s Ingenious Citizenship (2016). Empirically investigating the work of Atlanta community organizers, we emphasize pathways of strategic innovation among environmental justice organizers that improvise against the racial state even while negotiating with it. The article presents evidence of organizers challenging dominant modes of quantifying environmental injustice, appropriating and repurposing the language of environmental restoration, and improvising in the spaces of environmental governance. While state recognition has sought to contain or co-opt movements, we demonstrate the continuing vitality of mobilizations that simultaneously make demands of the state and rupture the governing forms of knowledge and practice that reinforce environmental racisms.

White Gazes of Black Detroit: Milliken v. Bradley I, Postcolonial Theory, and Persistent Inequalities

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Muhammad Khalifa ◽  
Ty-Ron M. O. Douglas ◽  
Terah Venzant Chambers
Keyword(s):  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Court Case ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
White American ◽  
Legal Literature ◽  
Critical Policy

Background/Context This article employs critical policy analysis as it examines the historical underpinnings of racialized policy discrimination in Detroit. It considers histories, discourses, and oppressive structures as it seeks to understand how policies have been and currently are implemented by Whites in predominantly Black urban areas. Focus of Study As we seek to understand how policy is constructed in relationship to predominantly Black communities, we argue that White actions toward Detroit are based on deep-rooted and historical biases, stereotypes, and fears of Blacks. Research Design We used critical policy analysis around the famed Milliken v. Bradley (1974) Supreme Court case to explore 20th century White American behaviors and policy regarding Black urban spaces, specifically in Detroit. Data Collection and Analysis We pull from political, educational, and legal literature surrounding Milliken I and critically examine prior research and policies related to the case. Conclusions/Recommendations Our analysis suggests that Milliken had a long-term deleterious impact on Black students (and families) in the city of Detroit, including the resegregation of separate and inequitable schools and the (re)entrenchment of White fears and stereotypes about Black Detroiters.

“In All Our Harlems”

2019 ◽  
pp. 124-150
Author(s):  
Carl Suddler
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Institutionalized Racism ◽  
Police Encounters ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Police Practices

This chapter recovers the case of the Harlem Six to attest to the firmness of race as a crucial determinant in American notions of crime and delinquency. The progress made in the decade of delinquency was met by systemic and institutionalized racism in the 1960s. Efforts to create a fair and impartial juvenile justice system became a thing of the past, and black youths in New York City bore the brunt of inordinate police practices and, consequently, endured the stigma of criminality henceforth. With anticrime laws such as “stop-and-frisk” and “no-knock,” which contributed to disparate arrest rates and increased police encounters in predominantly black communities, New York City officials established a police state that created a climate for dissension. This tale of criminal injustice reveals the extent to which the community was compelled to go to protect its youths from the overwhelming power of the state.

scholarly journals The Mass Criminalization of Black Americans: A Historical Overview

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hinton ◽  
DeAnza Cook
Keyword(s):  
Crime Control ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Colonial Era

This review synthesizes the historical literature on the criminalization and incarceration of black Americans for an interdisciplinary audience. Drawing on key insights from new histories in the field of American carceral studies, we trace the multifaceted ways in which policymakers and officials at all levels of government have used criminal law, policing, and imprisonment as proxies for exerting social control in predominantly black communities from the colonial era to the present. By underscoring this antiblack punitive tradition in America as central to the development of crime-control strategies and mass incarceration, our review lends vital historical context to ongoing discussions, research, and experimentation within criminology and other fields concerned about the long-standing implications of institutional racism, violence, and inequity entrenched in the administration of criminal justice in the United States from the top down and the ground up. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 4 is January 13, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

“Crucial to the Survival of Black People”

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-156
Author(s):  
Rowena Ianthe Alfonso
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Black Power ◽  
Black People ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Postindustrial City ◽  
Black Paper ◽  
Urban Issues

“This is a Black Paper,” declared BUILD’s statement criticizing the Buffalo Public School system for providing inferior education to black children in Buffalo, New York. Written in 1967 by the community organization, BUILD (which stood for Build Unity, Independence, Liberty, and Dignity), “BUILD Black Paper Number One” was a call for change. Like other black communities in late 1960s America, black Buffalo was caught up in the fervor of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. A “Rust Belt” city, Buffalo was hit hard by deindustrialization, which, coupled with unemployment, segregated housing and unequal education, adversely affected its black community. In 1967, a riot exploded in Buffalo’s predominantly black East Side. This article analyzes statements made by black Buffalonians and argues that Black Power thrived in Buffalo in the late 1960s, through community organizations which attempted to address urban issues that negatively affected African Americans in a postindustrial city.

scholarly journals Translating evidence-based behavioral weight loss into a multi-level, community intervention within a community-based participatory research framework: the Wellness Engagement (WE) Project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Gokee LaRose ◽  
Autumn Lanoye ◽  
Dwala Ferrell ◽  
Juan Lu ◽  
Maghboeba Mosavel
Keyword(s):  
Weight Loss ◽  
Community Intervention ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Behavioral Weight Loss ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Pilot Work ◽  
Viable Approach

Abstract Black Americans and individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are at disproportionate risk for obesity, yet are underrepresented in behavioral weight loss (BWL) trials and experience less benefit from traditional programs. The Wellness Engagement (WE) Project sought to translate evidence-based BWL within a CBPR framework to promote change across multiple domains of influence in an under-resourced, predominantly Black community. The purpose of this paper is to describe the efforts we undertook to translate data from our extensive formative phase into programming well suited to meet the needs of the Petersburg community. In addition, we present data from our pilot work on feasibility and acceptability. Formative data were collected using a variety of methods including a community-wide survey, asset mapping, house chats, focus groups, and key informant interviews. In collaboration with key stakeholders and community members, evidence-based approaches to weight loss were adapted to meet the needs of the community with respect to both content and delivery modality. Materials were adapted to focus on small, realistic changes appropriate for the specific context. Behavioral groups, experiential nutrition and exercise sessions, and walking groups leveraged existing assets and were open to all community members. Feasibility and acceptability ratings were promising. Furthermore, the WE Project appeared to contribute to a culture of wellness. CBPR might be a viable approach for engaging under-resourced Black communities in behavioral weight management; larger scale implementation and evaluation efforts are needed.

Wine, Beer, and Lotto: Black Community Mobilization Against Liquor Stores in Chicago

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (7) ◽  
pp. 705-726
Author(s):  
Twyla Blackmond Larnell ◽  
Christina Campbell ◽  
Jordan Papp
Keyword(s):  
Predominantly White ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Strong Correlations ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Liquor Stores ◽  
Weighted Regression Analysis ◽  
Spatial Cluster Analysis

Many studies find a higher density of liquor stores in urban communities with predominantly Black and/or low-income residents. Although these business establishments tend to fill commercial voids in these neighborhoods, residents complain that liquor stores often provoke serious problems. Scholars support these claims with findings showing evidence of strong correlations between liquor stores and crime, domestic abuse, and substance abuse. The present study focuses on determining whether liquor store density continues to be higher in Chicago’s low-income and Black communities. The results of spatial cluster analysis and geographically-weighted regression analysis run counter to expectations with liquor stores concentrated in wealthier areas and predominantly white communities. Further analysis show that low-income and Black communities mobilized to vote for local moratoriums on the establishments. These results (a) provide evidence of civic engagement and citizen-based political mobilization in low-income and Black communities as well as (b) reinforce the idea that “place matters” with the same institutions playing drastically different roles in different communities. The inequality of spaces perpetuates a system in which the same establishments trigger varying outcomes, thus reactions, according to neighborhood attributes.

scholarly journals “We don't care about these kids”: Chicago, Ethnic Studies, and the Politics of Caring

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinthya Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Chicago Public Schools ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Public Schooling ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
City State ◽  
Community Struggles ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Authentic Caring

This article juxtaposes two recent Chicago Public Schools (CPS) policies and expands upon Angela Valenzuela’s (1999) “politics of caring.” Given the unique space of Chicago for modeling neoliberal school reform policies, I analyze both the 2013 massive CPS closings that targeted predominantly Black communities and the subsequent institutionalization of African American and Latina/o Studies through CPS committees and curriculum. These CPS school closings and ethnic studies policies, I argue, mark a foundational relationship of racial and colonial power between students and communities of color and the settler city-state. Drawing upon community testimonies, news and popular media, and critical caring and ethnic studies scholarship, this article interrogates that racial-colonial relationship by tracing the manipulation of the politics of aesthetic and authentic caring through the Chicago public schooling apparatus. Finally, given current community struggles for education, I examine the possibilities of theorizing beyond authentic caring and towards a decolonial politics of caring.

Presumed Criminal

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Suddler
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
York City ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
War On Crime ◽  
The 1960S

Presumed Criminal is a provocative analysis of youth, race, and crime in New York City from the 1930s to the 1960s that shows how shifts in the criminal justice system bolstered authoritative efforts that criminalized black youths. Grounded in extensive research, it is a startling examination of a historical past that appears to be anything but past.The criminalization of black youth is inseparable from its racialized origins. Thus, when the federal government entered the debate on how to address juvenile delinquency in the United States, it occurred at a critical juncture when Progressive-era modes of rehabilitation were being replaced by disparate means of punishment. Black youths bore the brunt of the transition. In New York City, increased state surveillance of predominantly black communities compounded arrest rates into the post–World War II period, which gave reason to become tough on crime. Extreme police practices, such as stop-and-frisk, combined with media sensationalism, cemented black youths as the primary cause for concern. Consequently, before the War on Crime, black youths already faced a punitive justice system that restricted their social mobility and categorically branded them as criminal—a stigma they continue to endure.

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