In this volume, we have presented a conceptual framework that argues the American constitutional ... more In this volume, we have presented a conceptual framework that argues the American constitutional order has entailed various racial orders that advanced either more racially exclusive or more racially inclusive policy agendas. The American presidency has been a central actor in these orders. One key conclusion we reach based on the analyses of our contributors is that the historic presidency of Barack Obama attempted to advance the policy interests of various African American communities across several dimensions—e.g., voting rights, criminal justice reform, healthcare, and housing. And while African American communities may have had what we call an “inverted linked fate” with Obama (or linked their sense of well-being with Obama’s perceived political well-being), Obama’s personal linked fate with African American communities—i.e., Black women, Black LGBTQ persons, faith-based communities, etc.—did not overcome what we call the “inclusionary dilemma.” Despite African American voters being critical to Obama’s electoral victories, the aforementioned orders imposed constraints upon the Obama policy agenda and fueled the president’s reluctance to press more left-of-center policy prescriptions that would be of greater benefit to Black communities. We end by considering the Obama administration’s shortfalls relative to a new, progressive Black politics during the Trump administration.
More than thirty years ago, Peter Eisinger wrote an article that greatly influenced the thinking ... more More than thirty years ago, Peter Eisinger wrote an article that greatly influenced the thinking of students of social movements but gained little traction in the fields of American urban and racial politics. Entitled “The Conditions of Protest Behavior in American Cities” (American Political Science Review, 1973) Eisinger discovered that a governing regime’s internal dynamics partly determine the likelihood of insurgency, for systems with a mixture of open and closed characteristics most conduced protest. These findings helped lay the groundwork for the well-known political process approach and the literature on protest opportunity structures. Shaw and Brown greatly extend upon Eisinger’s late 1960s findings by using time-series methods to analyze an unique dataset of 20 cities with black and white mayors, ranging from 1970 to 1990. This dataset includes an extensive list of demographic, political, and fiscal expenditure variables and combines them with protest events as coded from...
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 2005
There have been several recent attempts to operationalize and measure empirically attitudinal sup... more There have been several recent attempts to operationalize and measure empirically attitudinal support for Black nationalism. However, scholars have not yet reached a consensus as to what precisely constitutes Black nationalism and its manifestations. Our work addresses three critical questions. First, is Black nationalism a uni-dimensional or a multi-dimensional construct? Second, is Black nationalism another form of xenophobia? Third, is support for Black nationalism a function of time? Some scholars note that Black nationalism takes on the character of its material context and that it cannot be easily subsumed into a trans-historical ideology (Reed 2002; Robinson 2001). We indirectly test these hypotheses by examining the relationship between two components of Black nationalism—Black separatism and Pan-Africanism. To test these hypotheses, we analyze data from the 1979–1980 National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA). Overall, we establish the determinants of support for Black separ...
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2004
This article examines how race affects conflict between advocates of community development and ne... more This article examines how race affects conflict between advocates of community development and neighborhood revitalization and local government led by a black mayor. The article shows that partly due to issues of racial representation in community development leadership, some activists, even white activists and leaders supportive of social change, can be ensnarled in the fissures of racialized community development politics. The article analyzes the advocacy initiatives of the Detroit Save Our Spirit (SOS) coalition—a majority white but progressive alliance—as they challenged Mayor Coleman Young’s community proposals between 1985 and 1993. Although Young was admired because he challenged racial inequality, his promotion of a progrowth economic development agenda led him to exploit Detroit’s racial divide to demobilize black and white critics. We demonstrate how SOS represented a multicultural inclusion model to overcome some of the racial fissures in community development.
In this volume, we have presented a conceptual framework that argues the American constitutional ... more In this volume, we have presented a conceptual framework that argues the American constitutional order has entailed various racial orders that advanced either more racially exclusive or more racially inclusive policy agendas. The American presidency has been a central actor in these orders. One key conclusion we reach based on the analyses of our contributors is that the historic presidency of Barack Obama attempted to advance the policy interests of various African American communities across several dimensions—e.g., voting rights, criminal justice reform, healthcare, and housing. And while African American communities may have had what we call an “inverted linked fate” with Obama (or linked their sense of well-being with Obama’s perceived political well-being), Obama’s personal linked fate with African American communities—i.e., Black women, Black LGBTQ persons, faith-based communities, etc.—did not overcome what we call the “inclusionary dilemma.” Despite African American voters being critical to Obama’s electoral victories, the aforementioned orders imposed constraints upon the Obama policy agenda and fueled the president’s reluctance to press more left-of-center policy prescriptions that would be of greater benefit to Black communities. We end by considering the Obama administration’s shortfalls relative to a new, progressive Black politics during the Trump administration.
More than thirty years ago, Peter Eisinger wrote an article that greatly influenced the thinking ... more More than thirty years ago, Peter Eisinger wrote an article that greatly influenced the thinking of students of social movements but gained little traction in the fields of American urban and racial politics. Entitled “The Conditions of Protest Behavior in American Cities” (American Political Science Review, 1973) Eisinger discovered that a governing regime’s internal dynamics partly determine the likelihood of insurgency, for systems with a mixture of open and closed characteristics most conduced protest. These findings helped lay the groundwork for the well-known political process approach and the literature on protest opportunity structures. Shaw and Brown greatly extend upon Eisinger’s late 1960s findings by using time-series methods to analyze an unique dataset of 20 cities with black and white mayors, ranging from 1970 to 1990. This dataset includes an extensive list of demographic, political, and fiscal expenditure variables and combines them with protest events as coded from...
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 2005
There have been several recent attempts to operationalize and measure empirically attitudinal sup... more There have been several recent attempts to operationalize and measure empirically attitudinal support for Black nationalism. However, scholars have not yet reached a consensus as to what precisely constitutes Black nationalism and its manifestations. Our work addresses three critical questions. First, is Black nationalism a uni-dimensional or a multi-dimensional construct? Second, is Black nationalism another form of xenophobia? Third, is support for Black nationalism a function of time? Some scholars note that Black nationalism takes on the character of its material context and that it cannot be easily subsumed into a trans-historical ideology (Reed 2002; Robinson 2001). We indirectly test these hypotheses by examining the relationship between two components of Black nationalism—Black separatism and Pan-Africanism. To test these hypotheses, we analyze data from the 1979–1980 National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA). Overall, we establish the determinants of support for Black separ...
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2004
This article examines how race affects conflict between advocates of community development and ne... more This article examines how race affects conflict between advocates of community development and neighborhood revitalization and local government led by a black mayor. The article shows that partly due to issues of racial representation in community development leadership, some activists, even white activists and leaders supportive of social change, can be ensnarled in the fissures of racialized community development politics. The article analyzes the advocacy initiatives of the Detroit Save Our Spirit (SOS) coalition—a majority white but progressive alliance—as they challenged Mayor Coleman Young’s community proposals between 1985 and 1993. Although Young was admired because he challenged racial inequality, his promotion of a progrowth economic development agenda led him to exploit Detroit’s racial divide to demobilize black and white critics. We demonstrate how SOS represented a multicultural inclusion model to overcome some of the racial fissures in community development.
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Papers by Todd Shaw