The Ghetto, the State, and the New Capitalist Economy

In: Dissent: a journal devoted to radical ideas and the values of socialism and democracy, Volume 36, p. 508-520

Abstract

A case study of Chicago's (Ill) black belt is used to exemplify the continuing degradation ("hyperghettoization") of urban black ghettos since the riots of the mid-1960s. Economic exclusion & deprivation are the lot of the soaring population in the crumbling neighborhoods of south & west Chicago. These conditions are analyzed as the result of (1) the recomposition of urban capitalist economy, & (2) exclusionary public policies over the last twenty years. First, corporate strategies have led to the deindustrialization of inner-city areas & "casualization of employment." Second, public policies in transportation & housing have fueled racial & class divisions in metropolises; moreover, school policies have marginalized, rather than integrated, ghetto youth. As a result, the social, economic, & cultural structure of black ghettos has gradually deteriorated. In inner-city areas, a permanent underclass is forming, which survives on crime & increasingly develops into a separate community. Welfare reform, which attempts to redress these problems by disciplining the underclass, is misguided. Only comprehensive social reforms (including provision of public employment & a nationally guaranteed minimum income) & the reversal of structurally induced inner-city conditions can undo this situation. 2 Tables, 65 References. B. Convert