Racial Propositions: Ballot Initiatives and the Making of Postwar California Volume 30

This book looks beyond the headlines to uncover the controversial history of California's ballot measures over the past fifty years. As the rest of the U.S. watched, California voters banned public services for undocumented immigrants, repealed public affirmative action programs, and outlawed bilingual education, among other measures. Why did a state with a liberal political culture, an increasingly diverse populace, and a well-organized civil rights leadership roll back civil rights and anti-discrimination gains? Daniel Martinez HoSang finds that, contrary to popular perception, this phenomenon does not represent a new wave of "color-blind" policies, nor is a triumph of racial conservatism. Instead, in a book that goes beyond the conservative-liberal divide, HoSang uncovers surprising connections between the right and left that reveal how racial inequality has endured. Arguing that each of these measures was a proposition about the meaning of race and racism, his deft, convincing analysis ultimately recasts our understanding of the production of racial identity, inequality, and power in the postwar era.

Author: Daniel Martinez Hosang
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 10/28/2010
Pages: 392
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.17lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.10w x 0.93d
ISBN13: 9780520266667
ISBN10: 0520266668
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | State & Local | West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT
- History | United States | 20th Century
- History | United States | 21st Century

About the Author
Daniel Martinez HoSang is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon.