Race, Class, and Gender in Urban Politics

Race in Las Vegas

• Dina Titus and Thomas Wright Article

• Las Vegas is clearly different from Chicago and NY and LA which are characterized by traditional European ethnic neighborhoods.

• Ethnic culture is less visible in Las Vegas

• But diversification has been rapid since 1980

Race in Las Vegas

• Minorities are dispersed across the Valley

• But there are racial neighborhoods

• Latinos near Downtown Las Vegas; North Las Vegas City Hall area

• China Town on Spring Mountain

• African Americans Westside and North Las Vegas

Race in Las Vegas

• Las Vegas has been transformed into a multiethnic, multicultural, polyglot metropolis

• Nevada experienced the greatest % growth among all the states in its Asian population during the 1990s

• CCSD now has a minority-majority • Yet participation in ethnic/cultural

organizations is generally low

Race in Las Vegas

• Over 70% of the Nevada population lives in Clark County

• Soon Clark County will have a minority-majority population

• Yet political participation is low for minorities and therefore electoral representation is low (especially for Latinos).

What is Sugrue’s article “Racial Confrontation in Post-War Detroit about?

• The rise of Homeowners’ Associations

• The purpose of HOAs

HOA

• Homeowner Association -- is an organization comprised of all owners of units in a common interest development, and is given authority to enforce the covenants, conditions, and restrictions and managing the common amenities of the development. Most homeowners' associations are now non-profit corporations, and are subject to state statutes that govern nonprofit corporations and homeowner associations

• The history of the homeowner association stretches back to the 1830's when the idea was imported from London and used to protect developments with covenants restricting the use of land and proclaiming, for example, the acceptable race, religion, and drinking habits of the residents.

• St. Francis Wood in San Francisco was one of the "successful early associations.“ It incorporated 500 homes and was "equipped with private streets, parks and tennis courts, and covenants establishing detailed architectural and use controls, racial restrictions, and a mandatory homeowner association."

HOA

• IN 1970 only about 1% of the population lived in a HOA/CID

• By 2006 1 in 5 Americans live in an HOA

• 9,000 to 11,000 new associations formed each year

Homeowners’ Associations & Cultural Conflict

• Purpose– Racial exclusion– Enforce local ordinances– Protect property values (via racial exclusion

and maintain property aesthetics)– Maintain social order (neighborhood watch)– Promote a sense of security, especially during

times of great social and economic change

Not just the rich like HOAs

• Working and middle-class whites are supportive of them because of “profound economic insecurities.”

• HOAs are “desperate acts of neighborhood self-determination, by well-organized groups, in response to an array of social and economic changes over which they have little control.”

Gated/walled communities as solutions to conflict

Promotes Isolationalism rather than communitarianism

Susan Bickford (previous reading): Promotes distrust and exacerbates potential conflict between groups in the long run

Sugrue conclusion: Ends up increasing fear and feelings of insecurity

Racial Conflict and Cooperation

• Roger’s Article• The Case of NY’s African-Americans and

Afro-Caribbean immigrants• Racial commonalities• “Linked racial fate”• Similar experiences in discrimination• Similar levels of segregation• Similar partisan ties

The Coalition that Never Came

• Patterns of Conflict– African-Americans unsupportive of Afro-

Caribbean candidates– Disagreement regarding support for Koch

• Limits of Racial Solidarity– Similarities are not highlighted or perceived by

either group

The Coalition that Never Came

• Conflicts over Descriptive Representation– electoral politics is a zero-sum game; one

groups gains means another ones loss

• Electoral districts– Districts track the boundaries of ethnic

enclaves– This might reduce physical tensions but

increases electoral tensions.

What does Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing suggest for Rainbow coalitions of minority groups?

Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing

• What do we see in this film?

• Poverty

• Heterogeneity

• Conflict– Racial– Cultural

Class Conflict

• Is racial conflict partial a product of class conflict?

• If so how?

• Lower socioeconomic whites tend to have the greatest animosity toward minorities.

• Why?

• Lower education

• But also because they may be in economic competition with one another

Gender Conflict

• Are women’s experiences with local government different from men?

• Do women view the city differently?

Women in Local Politics

• Women are more likely to be involved at the local level of politics than any other level (3 of the 7 Clark County Commissioners are women)

• Yet only 37 of the 243 mayors of cities with 100,000 people or more are women (2005 data)

Women may have different local needs and preferences

• Emphasis on education of children

• Health services

• Crime (women are more sensitive to this issue)

• Land– Use value (parks, hospitals, schools)– Market value (property tax, casinos, hotels)– Morality issues (pornography shops, strip clubs)