Adrian Fenty’s tenure as mayor of Washington D.C. is a perfect example of the impact of black elite displacement. For one thing, the difficulties faced by a political entrepreneur are the direct result of running a deracialized campaign. A deracialized candidate cannot ignore the black vote and the ideal of linked fate especially if African-Americans comprise a majority of the electorate. Additionally, elite displacement can be observed in an open race where the incumbent has picked a successor.
As a political entrepreneur, Fenty could not depend on the black political establishment to be of assistance to his campaign. As a result, Fenty was forced to seek assistance elsewhere. Most notably, in his first election Adrian Fenty was endorsed by the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. In contrast, his opponent, Linda Cropp was endorsed by Eric H. Holder who at the time was the deputy U.S. attorney general. However, for mayor Fenty the lack of support from the black political establishment did little to stop him fro m winning his election. In fact, in the 2006 election, Fenty won every ward with huge margins (Montgomery 2006). Moreover, Fenty did extremely well in ward four. “The ward is home to much of the city's black political establishment, including Fenty's chief rival, D.C. council chairman Linda W. Cropp”(Montgomery 2006). In spite of this, Fenty was not as fortunate in his reelection campaign.
Apparently, “Fenty misunderstood a changing city”(DeBonis 2010). DeBonis (2010) believed Fenty's campaign was betting that the electorate in Washington D.C. s would become richer and whiter. He began to raise a majority of his funds from white residents of D.C. and out side groups. For example, Mark Zuckerburg, co-founder of Fac...
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...ilable from: Regional Business News, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 12, 2013.
Stewart, Nikita . Fenty spends more than $1.8 million in two months to fend off Gray. Washington Post, The [serial online]. n.d.:Available from: Regional Business News, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 12, 2013.
Gillespie, Andra. The New Black Politician: Cory Booker, Newark, and Post-racial America. New York: New York UP, 2012. Print.
Geiger, Kim. "Washington Mayor Faces Reelection Battle despite Accomplishments." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 14 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Schwartzman, Paul, and Chris L. Jenkins. "How D.C. Mayor Fenty Lost the Black Vote - and His Job." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 19 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Montgomery, Lori. "In Sweep, Fenty Draws On Uniting To Conquer." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 14 Sept. 2006. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Panel Members. (2014). Retrieved February 26, 2014, from The Brown & Black Presidential Forum: http://www.bbpresforum.org/panel.html
More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time)
In January of 1990, Washington, DC, the seat of the federal government of the United States was turned upside down by scandal. While the headlines were filled with the efforts of the Bush Administration to crack down on drugs, the District's Mayor and symbol of black power against a nearly all white backdrop of authority was caught on videotape buying and than smoking crack cocaine with an exotic dancer two days before he was expected to announce an unprecedented fourth campaign for mayor. The sting was setup and carried out by a Federal Bureau of Investigation unit that had been pursing the frequent rumors of the Mayor's drug dependency.
Frazier begins a more detailed explanation of his theories by discussing the place of the black bourgeoisie in the political and power structures of America. He contends that the black middle class has no real power in America at this time. He attributes the appearance of power to the fact that the members of the black bourgeoisie hold strategic positions in the segregated community. However, he maintains that all of these “power” positions still feed into the white power structure.
Newark began to deteriorate and the white residents blamed the rising African-American population for Newark's downfall. However, one of the real culprits of this decline in Newark was do to poor housing, lack of employment, and discrimination. Twenty-five percent of the cities housing was substandard according to the Model C...
As the United States developed and grew, upward mobility was central to the American dream. It was the unstated promise that no matter where you started, you had the chance to grow and proceed beyond your initial starting point. In the years following the Civil War, the promise began to fade. People of all races strived to gain the representation, acknowledgement and place in this society. To their great devastation, this hope quickly dwindled. Social rules were set out by the white folk, and nobody could rise above their social standing unless they were seen fit to be part of the white race. The social group to be impacted the most by this “social rule” was the African Americans. Black folk and those who were sympathetic to the idea of equal rights to blacks were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. (Burton, 1998) The turning point in North Carolina politics was the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898. It was a very bold and outrageous statement from the white supremacists to the black folk. The Democratic white supremacists illegally seized power from the local government and destroyed the neighborhood by driving out the African Americans and turning it from a black-majority to a white-majority city. (Class Discussion 10/3/13) This event developed the idea that even though an African American could climb a ladder to becoming somebody in his or her city, he or she will never become completely autonomous in this nation. Charles W. Chesnutt discusses the issue of social mobility in his novel The Marrow of Tradition. Olivia Carteret, the wife of a white supremacist is also a half-sister to a Creole woman, Janet Miller. As the plot develops, we are able to see how the social standing of each woman impacts her everyday life, and how each woman is ...
The downgrading of African Americans to certain neighborhoods continues today. The phrase of a not interested neighborhood followed by a shift in the urban community and disturbance of the minority has made it hard for African Americans to launch themselves, have fairness, and try to break out into a housing neighborhood. If they have a reason to relocate, Caucasians who support open housing laws, but become uncomfortable and relocate if they are contact with a rise of the African American population in their own neighborhood most likely, settle the neighborhoods they have transfer. This motion creates a tremendously increase of an African American neighborhood, and then shift in the urban community begins an alternative. All of these slight prejudiced procedures leave a metropolitan African American population with few options. It forces them to remain in non-advanced neighborhoods with rising crime, gang activity, and...
Following the years of Congressional Reconstruction during the Johnson administration, former Union General Ulysses S. Grant was elected president, despite his lack of political experience. Although Grant was an excellent soldier, he proved to be an insufficient politician, failing to respond effectively to rampant corruption throughout his two terms in office. Both government and businesses were plagued by corrupt schemes, as Republican leaders used the spoils system to gain political favors and “robber barons,” such as Jay Gould and James Fisk, stole large sums of money at the public’s expense. New York Mayor William “Boss” Tweed, leader of the “Tammany Hall” political machine, took advantage of the influx of immigrants to the United States by manipulating newly arrived immigrants, promising employment, housing, and other favors in return for their electoral support. This blatant corruption severely damaged the opinions of many Americans regarding their government, and prompted the election of numerous reform-minded politicians. Rutherford B. Hayes and James Garfield both attempted to restore honest government following the tainted Grant administration, yet political divisions between the “Halfbreed” and “Stalwart” factions of the Republican Party prev...
In The Promised Land, Nicholas Lehmann follows the stories of black migrants, politicians, and bureaucrats through the Great Migration, and attempts to explain the decline of northern cities, the constant liberty struggle of blacks across America, and government response to the issues surrounding the Great Migration. This work signalled a drastic change from the structured approach of Thomas Sugrue’s, The Origins Of The Urban Crisis, which observes the effects of institutions and human agency on postwar Detroit and its marginalized peoples. Both Sugrue and Lemann had (albeit slightly different) holistic views of the political climate of postwar cities, which helped provide context for prejudices towards blacks and the poor, and subsequently
Before entering into the main body of his writing, Allen describes to readers the nature of the “semicolony”, domestic colonialism, and neocolonialism ideas to which he refers to throughout the bulk of his book. Priming the reader for his coming argument, Allen introduces these concepts and how they fit into the white imperialist regime, and how the very nature of this system is designed to exploit the native population (in this case, transplanted native population). He also describes the “illusion” of black political influence, and the ineffectiveness (or for the purposes of the white power structure, extreme effectiveness) of a black “elite”, composed of middle and upper class black Americans.
As the mayor of Chicago until his death in 1976 and as chairman of Chicago's Cook County Democratic Central Committee from 1953 to 1976, Richard Joseph Daley was one of the most powerful politicians in the United States. He easily won reelection to office in five successive campaigns from 1959 to 1975, and during his mayoralty Chicago was the scene of an unprecedented building boom, improvement in city services, and urban renewal programs. Daley ran Chicago when federal government was pouring billions into highways, public transit, housing for poor. He used it to advantage, mounting massive urban renewal...
Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelly II, Barbara A. Bardes. American Government and Politics Today: 2010-2011 Brief Edition. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011
Johnson, Anne. Janette. “Toni Morrison.” Black Contemporary Authors. A Selection of Contemporary Authors.
The American upper class controls our governing bodies, our social institutions, our policy-making process, and everything else in between. Ask yourself: when has a poor black woman from inner-city Houston ever navigated the detours and roadblocks that pervade the journey up the American class system? Contrarily, what proportion of American legislators, lobbyists, and lawyers come from upper-middle and upper class families? One element absent from Domhoff’s book was a discussion on social capital. I believe that an acknowledgement of how networking amongst members of the upper class increases the social capital of American elites, and how such a consequence can prove critical in maintaining class parameters and ensuring they remain in place for generations to come. Cutting off communication opportunities between classes is quite possibly the greatest cause of classism in America. It is not that Domhoff neglected a discussion on social capital as his ideas more or less all consummate the idea; I just wish he would have incorporated a discussion of the term directly in his
Scott, J.W. The Black Revolts: Racial Stratification In The U.S.A.: The Politics Of Estate, Caste,