The Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics

Abstract

The neoliberal turn arguably has a powerful effect on black political ideas, black political practices, and black life in general; the nature of this effect has gone under-examined. In this work I seek to rectify this gap by examining neoliberal governmentality as it appears in black communities. The result should deepen our understanding of class politics within racially subjugated communities, and should push us to consider a much wider range of phenomenon when examining the way resources are distributed within already resource-poor black communities.

Keywords:

• black politics
• governmentality
• neoliberalism

Notes

Before neoliberal policies were instituted, American cities were able to garner significant resources from the federal government in order to provide an array of social services. With the rising adoption of neoliberal approaches to government, federal funds were slashed, forcing cities to adopt a variety of policies designed to attract desirable populations with a focus on “the creative class” (Florida 2002, 2005), to makeup for reduced revenue via casinos, tourism, and cultural imaginings (Pappas 2000; Kenny and Zimmerman 2004), and to police populations (Herbert 2001; Herbert and Brown 2006).

Much of the research examining the racial politics of contemporary welfare reform is in effect an examination of neoliberalism. Punitive and increasingly bureaucratic techniques of government are used to deal with non-white populations deemed incapable of exercising freedom (Gilens 1999; Clawson and Trice 2000; Schram, Soss, and Fording 2003; Soss, Fording, and Schram 2008). When Bill Clinton signed PRWORA in 1996 he gave states and counties the authority to modify their welfare bureaucracy as they saw fit. States with larger and more dispersed black populations were not only more likely to give local authorities responsibility in managing Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF), they were more likely to implement punitive policies (stringent time limits, strict family caps, family sanctions) than states with smaller and less dispersed black populations (Soss et al. 2008). Whites are much more likely to support punitive crime measures if they associate crime with young black men (Gilliam Jr. and Iyengar 2000).

Michael Dawson's 2011 study of Obama-era black politics stands out as does Richard Iton's (2008) and Lester Spence's (2011) works on black popular culture.

The work of Adolph Reed (1997) serves as an exception here.