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Operatively White: Exploring The Significance Of Race And Class Through The Paradox Of Black Middle-Classness, Audrey Mcfarlane
Operatively White: Exploring The Significance Of Race And Class Through The Paradox Of Black Middle-Classness, Audrey Mcfarlane
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The black–white paradigm has been the crucial paradigm in racial geography of land use, housing and development. Yet it is worthwhile to consider that, in this context, distinctions based on race are accompanied by a powerful, racialized discourse of middle class versus poor. The black–white paradigm in exclusionary zoning, for example, involves the wealthy or middle-class white person (we need not even use the term white) protesting against or displacing the poor black person. (we also need not even use the term black). Another example of the racialized discourse of middle class versus poor is in the urban-gentrification context. The …
Preserving Community In The City: Special Improvement Districts And The Privatization Of Urban Racialized Space, Audrey Mcfarlane
Preserving Community In The City: Special Improvement Districts And The Privatization Of Urban Racialized Space, Audrey Mcfarlane
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This essay examines some of the ramifications of the formation of business improvement districts (BIDs) in urban centers that levy additional taxes in particular geographic areas to provide supplementary services. Originally designed to further business development to improve the tax base of the entire city, these districts are increasingly being used by affluent city neighborhoods to enhance what are viewed as inadequate municipal services. Because cities are often divided into affluent, white neighborhoods and poor minority ones, BIDs are troubling in that they reinforce race and class divisions within what is theoretically an urban whole. Professor McFarlane argues that we …