University of Chicago Press
America’s New Racial Battle Lines
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About this book
A sobering portrait of the United States’ divided racial politics.
For nearly two decades, Rogers M. Smith and Desmond King have charted the shifting racial policy alliances that have shaped American politics across different eras. In America’s New Racial Battle Lines, they show that US racial policy debates are undergoing fundamental change. Disputes over colorblind versus race-conscious policies have given way to new lines of conflict. Today’s conservatives promise to protect traditionalist, predominantly white, Christian Americans against what they call the “radical” Left. Meanwhile, today’s progressives seek not just to integrate American institutions but to more fully transform and “repair” pervasive systemic racism.
Drawing on interviews with activists, surveys, social network analyses, and comprehensive reviews of federal, state, and local policies and advocacy groups, Smith and King map the memberships and goals of two rival racial policy alliances and delineate the contrasting stories each side tells. They also show that these increasingly polarized racial policy alliances are substantially funded on both the Left and Right.
Placing today’s conflicts in theoretical and historical perspectives, Smith and King analyze where these intensifying clashes may take the nation in the years ahead. They highlight the great potential for mounting violence, as well as the remaining possibilities for finding common ground.
Author / Editor information
Reviews
“Measuring and analyzing these current debates on the role of race and public policy, Smith and King have produced a detailed, nuanced, and ultimately fascinating portrait of how race shapes, interacts with, and often frustrates racial consensus in modern American politics…America's New Racial Battle Lines offers important insights and understandings while building a model for future debates about the role of race in American politics. If we are to continue having sharp racial battles, this book is as clear a map as we are likely to get.”
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Frontmatter
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Contents
vii -
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List of Figures and Tables
ix - PART 1. America’s Racial Battles: An Overview
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chapter 1. America’s New Racial Battle Lines
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Chapter 2. Racial Orders as Institutional Orders: Race, Class, and Intersectionality
33 - PART 2. The Protect Alliance
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Chapter 3. The Rise of the Protect Policy Alliance: New Actors, New Money, Resurgent Causes
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Chapter 4. The Conservatives’ Story: Who and What to Protect
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Chapter 5. The Protect Alliance at Work: Policies and Reforms
124 - PART 3. The Repair Alliance
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Chapter 6. The Rise of the New Repair Groups
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Chapter 7. The Repair Story and Transformative Visions
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Chapter 8. Today’s Repair Alliance: Current Initiatives across Policy Regimes
221 - PART 4. The Rough Roads Ahead
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Chapter 9. Lessons for and from Theories of Racial Politics
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Chapter 10. Views from the Battleground: Paths and Prospects for America’s New Racial Politics
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Acknowledgments
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Appendix A. Research Strategies and Methodologies
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Appendix B. Organizations in the Protect Alliance
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Appendix C. Organizations in the Repair Alliance
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Notes
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References
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Index
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