Black Brooklyn: The politics of ethnicity, *class, and gender.
Item
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Title
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Black Brooklyn: The politics of ethnicity, *class, and gender.
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Identifier
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AAI3169906
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identifier
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3169906
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Creator
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Flateau, John Louis.
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Contributor
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Adviser: John Mollenkopf
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies | Black Studies
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Abstract
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In the 1960s, Black urban communities moved from protest politics to the electoral arena. They made major strides in electing big city mayors with Black led, bi-racial coalitions including white liberals, Hispanics and other coalition partners. The study of this minority ascendancy to urban power in heavily Black and racially mixed cities is known as minority incorporation theory (Browning, Marshall and Tabb 2003). By the 1990s, research shifted to how these earlier bi-racial coalitions and mayoral regimes were sometimes supplanted by more centrist, business oriented, white led multi-racial coalitions, such as Richard J. Daley Jr. in Chicago; Rudolph Giuliani then Michael Bloomberg in New York, Ed Rendell in Philadelphia; and Richard Riordan then James Hahn in Los Angeles. With massive immigration and urban migration from the 1980s onward, Hispanics and Asians, and in New York City, West Indians as well, emerged as important voting blocs, swing voters, and highly mobile coalition partners.;This dissertation argues that in the 21st century study of urban politics, more attention should be paid to the internal dynamics of ethnicity, class and gender among Blacks, in order to better understand their own political development and their ability to coalesce with others. Black Brooklyn, and its two main ethnic groups of African Americans and West Indians, comprises the case study which explores this proposition.;This research demonstrates how and why ethnicity, class and gender powerfully circumscribe Black Brooklyn's ability to consummate its own racial solidarity and pose a challenge to the pursuit of multiracial coalitions, a critical precondition for minority incorporation. This study tests the central hypothesis that Central Brooklyn's African Americans and West Indians have distinct patterns of ethnicity, class and gender which significantly drive their political behavior, both within and across their ethnic blocs, neighborhood concentrations and political districts. This study verifies that ethnicity, class and gender do matter, and they are statistically significant predictors of voter turnout and candidate choice in the politics of Black Brooklyn, particularly in municipal elections.;Thus ethnicity, class and gender should be taken into account when assessing racial group solidarity, minority incorporation, and multi-racial coalition building in the pursuit of urban power, more effective policy and decision making, and more responsive, representative and equitable governance.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
