Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis: A Living Black Chicago History

Anti-black racism is a stark presence in Chicago, a fact illustrated by significant racial inequality in and around contemporary "global" city. Drawing his work as a civil rights advocate and investigator in Chicago, Street explains this neo-liberal apartheid and its resulting disparity in terms of persistently and deeply racist societal and institutional practices and policies. Racial Oppression in the Black Metropolis uses the highly relevant historical and sociological laboratory that is Chicago in order to explain the racist societal and institutional practices and policies which still typify the United States.

Street challenges dominant neoconservative explanations of the black urban crisis that emphasize personal irresponsibility and cultural failure. Looking to the other side of the ideological isle, he criticizes liberal and social democratic approaches that elevate class over race and challenges many observers' sharp distinction between present and so-called past racism. In questioning the supposedly inevitable reign of urban-neoliberaism, Street also investigates the real, racial politics of the United States and finds that parties and ideologies matter little on matters of race.

This innovative work in urban history and cultural criticism will inform contemporary social science and policy debates for years to come.

Author: Paul Street
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 07/19/2007
Pages: 328
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 8.94h x 6.31w x 0.96d
ISBN13: 9780742540828
ISBN10: 0742540820
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | African American & Black Studies
- Social Science | Discrimination
- History | United States | State & Local | Midwest(IA,IL,IN,KS,MI,MN,MO

About the Author
Paul Street was the Vice President for Research and Planning and Director of Research at The Chicago Urban League and is currently an independent policy researcher and journalist in Iowa City. He is the author of Empire and Inequality: America and the World Since 9/11 and Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid in the Post-Civil Rights Era. Street writes regularly for Z Magazine, Black Agenda Report, and Dissident Voice.