The Color of Power
Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
Luis Ricardo Fraga and Paula D. McClain, Editors
The Color of Power
Racial Coalitions and Political Power in Oakland
Frdrick Douzet
TRANSLATED BY GEORGE HOLOCH
University of Virginia Press
Charlottesville and London
Originally published in French as La couleur du pouvoir: Gopolitique de limmigration et de la sgrgation Oakland, Californie, 2007 Editions Belin, Paris
Translated with the support of the Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust
University of Virginia Press
Translation 2012 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
First published 2012
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Douzet, Frdrick.
[Couleur du pouvoir. English]
The color of power : racial coalitions and political power in Oakland / Frdrick Douzet ; translated by George Holoch.
p. cm. (Race, ethnicity, and politics)
Originally published as: La couleur du pouvoir. Paris : Belin, 2007. The English-language edition updates the account through 2010.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8139-3281-1 (cloth : acid-free paper) ISBN 978-0-8139-3284-2 (e-book)
1. MinoritiesCaliforniaOaklandSocial conditions. 2. RacismCaliforniaOakland. 3. GeopoliticsCaliforniaOakland. 4. Emigration and immigrationSocial aspects. 5. Oakland (Calif.)Race relations. 6. Oakland (Calif.)Civilization. I. Title.
F869.O2D6813 2007
305.8009794'66dc23
2012004862
Maps F. Douzet, 2012
To Jrmy, Arthur, and Clara
Contents
Foreword
Racial and ethnic relations in America are evolving continuously, shaped by policy shifts, economic circumstances and demographic trends. For much of the postWorld War II period, the defining racial paradigm was biracial as America gradually worked through the residual effects of slavery and post-Reconstruction Jim Crow discrimination. The end of racially defined immigration quotas and the economic pull of Mexican undocumented labor ushered in a new era of multiracialism, the effects of which were initially most visible in the Southwest and West. But now the effects of immigration have reached into almost every region of the country. What was once primarily a California or Texas experience is today a national narrative.
Frdrick Douzets account of the shifting racial and ethnic situation in Oakland California foreshadows the path that the rest of the country might take if current trends continue. Oakland, initially a white-dominated city, was transformed by wartime economic needs into a biracial city that gradually ceded power to its black community. But now multiracialism has shifted the bases of political power once again, with growing Asian and Latino communities challenging the citys black and white liberal establishment. For many black community leaders, this power shift seems untimely because the agenda of lifting the black community from its position of socioeconomic disadvantage is still unfinished. White liberals lost faith in government solutions to urban racial problems after the disappointments of the Great Society era, and many black voters became disillusioned with efforts of their elected representatives in subsequent years. The most promising path for them now, as Professor Douzet shows, is multiracial, forging alliances with new coalition partners and figuring out ways to reconcile rival demands.
The temporal part of the story is critical but not quite as novel as the spatial. France has long maintained a distinguished tradition of geographical studies. Geopolitics, a term that in the United States usually refers to international politics, helps to explain power in domestic situations as well. Political power is reforged at the intersection of geographic and demographic trends. Electoral strength under the U.S. system requires sufficient numbers in a spatial concentration to control or at least influence the outcome of elections. When it is achieved, groups can elect representatives of their own choice and direct policies, goods, and services into their neighborhoods. It is what Harold Lasswell famously referred to as the who gets what, why, and how aspect of politics.
But electoral power can be won and lost through demographic change. As neighborhoods change in racial and ethnic composition, the coalitional calculus shifts as well. That is not to say that demography and spatial concentration create political power deterministically. The leadership skill of enlisting and maintaining coalition partners is not merely a numbers game. But it is to say that the slow erosion of a voter base and the expectations that new groups harbor can undermine the one groups dominance and require new coalitions, as Douzets study amply demonstrates.
The progressive urban agenda, intended to lift disadvantaged minority populations from poverty, crime, and social discrimination, is both unfinished and now more complex. Biracial politics had the virtue of simplicity: blacks were the disadvantaged group and the majority of whites the advantaged ones. But now disadvantage has multiple dimensions, not just economic but linguistic and cultural obstacles as well. Upward social mobility has created a black middle class, often residing in different areas from the poorer black population. Discrimination and racial tensions can become multidimensionalnot just whites versus nonwhites but also nonwhites discriminating against one another. The legal framework of voting rights and antidiscrimination no longer simply applies to the black community and can sometimes be used against them by other minority groups.
In one sense, Douzets study is in the de Tocqueville tradition; trained as both a journalist and a political geographer, she is skilled at observation and has composed a readable narrative of Oaklands multiracial / ethnic evolution. But in another sense, her work reflects the geopolitical perspective that this struggle is a spatial story, not only of foreign born residents moving from one country to the United States but also to neighborhoods forming and changing as the new populations enter and old ones leave. Her maps tell as much about Oaklands evolution as does her prose.
Several of the best recent studies of U.S. racial politics focus on Californias cities and include Raphe Sonensheins Politics in Black and White and Rufus Browning, Dale Marshall, and David Tabbs Protest Is Not Enough. Frdrick Douzets study The Color of Power adds to this distinguished list.
Bruce E. Cain
Acknowledgments
This book is the result of so many discussions, encounters, interviews, and field trips conducted over more than fifteen years that it would be impossible to mention all the people in Oakland who generously contributed their time, thoughts, advice or documentation to help me. I would like to thank all of them warmly.
I would like to express my gratitude specifically to three wonderful professors who along these years have greatly contributed to shape me intellectually and provided me with constant encouragements and indefectible support: Batrice Giblin introduced me to geopolitics and has accompanied me through my career from its earliest stages; Bruce E. Cain opened his archives and research center to me, shared his insights on my research, and instilled in me tremendous intellectual generosity; Denis Lacorne walked me through the literature on multiculturalism and constantly challenged me with highly stimulating discussions and ideas. These three professors are true role models and inspired me to give my students and colleagues as much support, strength, and intellectual generosity as I have received.
