Race and the Politics of Deception: The Making of an American City
What is the relationship between race and space, and how do racial politics inform the organization and development of urban locales?

In Race and the Politics of Deception, Christopher Mele unpacks America’s history of dealing with racial problems through the inequitable use of public space. Mele focuses on Chester, Pennsylvania—a small city comprised of primarily low-income, black residents, roughly twenty miles south of Philadelphia. Like many cities throughout the United States, Chester is experiencing post-industrial decline. A development plan touted as a way to “save” the city, proposes to turn one section into a desirable waterfront destination, while leaving the rest of the struggling residents in fractured communities. Dividing the city into spaces of tourism and consumption versus the everyday spaces of low-income residents, Mele argues, segregates the community by creating a racialized divide. While these development plans are described as socially inclusive and economically revitalizing, Mele asserts that political leaders and real estate developers intentionally exclude certain types of people—most often, low-income people of color.

Race and the Politics of Deception provides a revealing look at how our ever-changing landscape is being strategically divided along lines of class and race.

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Race and the Politics of Deception: The Making of an American City
What is the relationship between race and space, and how do racial politics inform the organization and development of urban locales?

In Race and the Politics of Deception, Christopher Mele unpacks America’s history of dealing with racial problems through the inequitable use of public space. Mele focuses on Chester, Pennsylvania—a small city comprised of primarily low-income, black residents, roughly twenty miles south of Philadelphia. Like many cities throughout the United States, Chester is experiencing post-industrial decline. A development plan touted as a way to “save” the city, proposes to turn one section into a desirable waterfront destination, while leaving the rest of the struggling residents in fractured communities. Dividing the city into spaces of tourism and consumption versus the everyday spaces of low-income residents, Mele argues, segregates the community by creating a racialized divide. While these development plans are described as socially inclusive and economically revitalizing, Mele asserts that political leaders and real estate developers intentionally exclude certain types of people—most often, low-income people of color.

Race and the Politics of Deception provides a revealing look at how our ever-changing landscape is being strategically divided along lines of class and race.

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Race and the Politics of Deception: The Making of an American City

Race and the Politics of Deception: The Making of an American City

by Christopher Mele
Race and the Politics of Deception: The Making of an American City

Race and the Politics of Deception: The Making of an American City

by Christopher Mele

Hardcover

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Overview

What is the relationship between race and space, and how do racial politics inform the organization and development of urban locales?

In Race and the Politics of Deception, Christopher Mele unpacks America’s history of dealing with racial problems through the inequitable use of public space. Mele focuses on Chester, Pennsylvania—a small city comprised of primarily low-income, black residents, roughly twenty miles south of Philadelphia. Like many cities throughout the United States, Chester is experiencing post-industrial decline. A development plan touted as a way to “save” the city, proposes to turn one section into a desirable waterfront destination, while leaving the rest of the struggling residents in fractured communities. Dividing the city into spaces of tourism and consumption versus the everyday spaces of low-income residents, Mele argues, segregates the community by creating a racialized divide. While these development plans are described as socially inclusive and economically revitalizing, Mele asserts that political leaders and real estate developers intentionally exclude certain types of people—most often, low-income people of color.

Race and the Politics of Deception provides a revealing look at how our ever-changing landscape is being strategically divided along lines of class and race.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781479866090
Publisher: New York University Press
Publication date: 01/10/2017
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Christopher Mele is an urban sociologist at the Universityat Buffalo. He is the author or editor of several books, including Selling the Lower East Side: Culture, Real Estate, and Resistance in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xi

1 Race Strategies and the Politics of Urban Development 1

2 The Racial Divide in the Making of Chester 17

3 How to Make a Ghetto 43

4 The Birmingham of the North 73

5 Five Square Miles of Hell 109

6 Welcome to the "Post-Racial" Black City 143

Notes 161

Index 177

About the Author 181

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