Black Metropolis in the Majority Minority City

• In Event: 347 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Paper Session. Racial and Ethnic Minorities as the New Majority

Abstract

This presentation revisits the classic book Black Metropolis and considers how to think about Black communities in cities in which non-Whites comprise the minority, as is the case in Chicago. I focus on two questions: What and where is Black Metropolis in the early twenty-first century? And, what does racial, ethnic, and immigrant diversity mean for political governance? I argue that Chicago remains an iconic and particularly extreme form of black residential settlement. However, we must also look to the suburbs and to the South to find today’s thriving Black Metropolises. Moreover, the cinch of the Black Belt has slowly but steadily loosened so that nationwide a shrinking proportion of blacks live in black neighborhoods. Regarding political governance, there are distinctive nodes of power at the three geographies of governance in the Chicago metropolitan area. At the City and County levels there is much more racial (and gender) diversity in leadership, while at the regional level it is dominated by white men with substantial ties to the business elite. This is likely to be consequential for how issues of equity and the social safety net are negotiated across the region. Also, the growth of the Latino population is not yet reflected in political power. Over all, pairing the observation of racial/ethnic demographic diversity with an analysis of political power highlights the need to hold regional authorities accountable to including black, Latino, and immigrant perspectives as they chart out visions for the metropolitan area.

Author

• Mary E. Pattillo, Northwestern University