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

(Paperback)

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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.

Reviews

Race and racism have a continuing and profound influence in shaping all aspects of American life. Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis not only captures the pernicious impact racism has as an ideological and structural force, but illuminates with clarity, power, and imagination the way in which it is lived and struggled over at the level of daily life. Street has produced what may be one of the most important accounts of both the causes and effects of racism amid vast material inequities in one of America's most important cities. Paul Street has become an essential figure as a critical commentator on race in the United States. This book should be read by everyone who believes in racial justice, democracy, and hope for the future. -- Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest
a bracing look at what has and has not changed in Chicago, Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis is worth the time. * Colorlines *
Paul Street has long written some of the most compelling studies of race and class in Chicago history. At the same time he has produced critical material on how structural racism works today and on how public policies and social movements can produce hope and change. This marvelous book brings past and present together, showing just how the glitter of global Chicago rests on and reproduces injustice. -- David Roediger, Babcock Professor of History and African American Studies, University of Illinois, and author of History Against Misery

Author Bio

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.