Being left in east New York: Tensions between race and class in community organizing, 1954-1980
This is a sociological history of an interracial Brooklyn community center committed to community organizing as a vehicle for moving people to learn about and respond democratically and collectively to the larger social, political and economic forces that affect them and their collective lives. The...
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-1999
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | This is a sociological history of an interracial Brooklyn community center committed to community organizing as a vehicle for moving people to learn about and respond democratically and collectively to the larger social, political and economic forces that affect them and their collective lives. The dissertation describes the activist role of the organization within New York City as a proponent of racial integration and integrated community struggle which it sees as necessary for a larger, working class based movement. The organization was guided by a theory, derived in part from American Marxian theory and democratic philosophy about the need of people to socialize, work and struggle together—across differences—to address the needs of the community and to create a vibrant social life. It used the term, “richness of difference”, as its guiding theme and struggled to realize a unique vision of intercultural urban living, education and social struggle. This dissertation covers the period when New York City changed from an industrial to a post-industrial city with more complex occupational, demographic, and political structures in the metropolitan area; when civil rights integrationism was superseded by black nationalism in the black movement; and, when the austerity resolution to the City's fiscal crisis portended the national mobilization of a political ideology committed to reducing government services; and, when women's participation in the labor force accelerated. As its community changed from primarily white to African-American and Latino, the organization battled black nationalism/pluralism in the area of education and sought to organize against cutbacks in city services. This dissertation examines the effects upon the community of these political, social and economic processes and their significance for community organizing. The analysis examines external and internal social and theoretical factors that diminish the organization's effectiveness. It focuses upon both the practical tensions produced when a theory that presupposes the industrial city confronts a post-industrial social economy, and the tensions produced by a theory that understands race as the convergence of class and ethnicity, not as a relatively independent structure of power and conflict based upon the unequal distribution of social honor. |
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| ISBN: | 9780599165427 0599165421 |