Income and wage inequalities in the United States have increased significantly since 1973. This article documents these changes and argues that an organized national multiracial political constituency is needed for the development and implementation of policies that will help reverse the trends of the rising inequality and ease the burdens of ordinary families. However, a vision of American society that highlights racial differences rather than commonalities makes it difficult for Americans to see the need for and appreciate the potential of mutual political support across racial lines. Accordingly, this article explains why the idea of a national multiracial coalition should be seriously considered. It also spells out the theoretical conditions that facilitate the formation of such a coalition. Finally, it discusses a current network of community grassroots organizations—the Industrial Areas Foundation—that demonstrates how obstacles to sustained interracial cooperation can be overcome.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bernstein, Jared and Lawrence Mishel .1997. Has Wage Inequality Stopped Growing?Monthly Labor Review Dec.:3-16.
2.
Bobo, Lawrence and James R. Kluegel .1993. Opposition to Race Targeting: Self-Interest, Stratification Ideology, or Racial Attitudes. American Sociological Review58:443-64.
3.
Bronfenbrenner, Urie, Stephen Ceci, Phylliss Moen, Peter McClelland, and Elaine Wethington .1996. The State of Americans: This Generation and the Next. New York: Free Press.
4.
Brueggemann, John and Terry Boswell.1998. Realizing Solidarity: Sources of Interracial Unionism During the Great Depression. Work and Occupations25(Nov.):436-81.
5.
Cortes, Ernesto, Jr. 1994. Reweaving the Social Fabric. Boston Review June-Sept.:12-14.
6.
Ellwood, David.1998. Winners and Losers in America: Taking Measure of the New Economic Realities. Paper presented to the Aspen Domestic Strategy Group Meeting, July, Aspen, CO.
7.
Faux, Jeff.1997. You Are Not Alone. In The New Majority, ed. Stanley Greenberg and Theda Skocpol . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
8.
Fine, Michelle and Lois Weis.1998. The Unknown City: Lives of Poor and Working-Class YoungAdultsBoston: Beacon Press.
9.
Freeman, Richard B.1999. The New Inequality: Creating Solutions for Poor America . Boston: Beacon Press.
10.
Galbraith, James K.1998. Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay. New York: Free Press.
Greenberg, Stanley B.1995. Middle Class Dreams: The Politics and Power of the New American Majority. New York: Times Books.
13.
—. 1997. Popularizing Progressive Politics. In The New Majority, ed. Stanley B. Greenberg and Theda Skocpol. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
14.
Hewlett, Sylvia Ann and Cornel West.1998. The War Against Parents. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
15.
Hill, Robert B.1978. The Illusion of Black Progress. Washington, DC: National Urban League Research Department.
16.
Hochschild, Jennifer L. and Reuel Rogers. Forthcoming. Race Relations in a Diversifying Nation. In New Directions: African Americans in a Diversifying Nation, ed. James Jackson.Washington, DC: National Policy Association.
17.
Johnson, David W., Roger Johnson, and Geoffrey Maruyama. 1984. Goal Interdependence and Interpersonal Attraction in Heterogeneous Classrooms: A Meta-Analysis. In Groups in Contact: The Psychology of Desegregation, ed. M. Miller and M. B. Brewer.Orlando, FL: Academic Press .
18.
Krueger, Alan.1997. What's up with Wages? Mimeo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, Industrial Relations Section .
19.
Krugman, Paul.1997. Superiority Complex. New Republic , 3 Nov., 20-21.
20.
Levy, Frank.1998. The New Dollars and Dreams: American Incomes and Economic Change. New York: Russell Sage Foundation .
21.
Luker, Kristin.1996. Dubious Conception: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
Mishel, Lawrence and Jared Bernstein .1993. The State of Working America 1992-1993. Armonk, NY: Sharpe.
23.
National Opinion Research Center.1982-93. General Social Surveys. University of Chicago.
24.
Patterson, Orlando.1997. The Ordeal of Integration: Progress and Resentment in America's Racial CrisisWashington, DC: Civitas.
25.
Richmond, Henry R.1997. Program Design: The American Land Institute. Manuscript. N.p.
26.
Robinson, John P. and Geoffrey Godbera.1997. Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
27.
Sonenshein, Raphael J.1990. Biracial Coalitions in Big Cities: Why They Succeed, Why They Fail. In Racial Politics in American Cities, ed. Rufus P. Browing, Dale Rogers Marshall, and David H. Tabb.New York: Longman.
28.
Thernstrom, Stephan and Abigail Themstrom.1997. America in Black and White. New York : Simon & Schuster.
29.
Uchitelle, Louis.1997. As Asia Stumbles, U.S. Stays in Economic Stride . New York Times. 7 Dec.
30.
U.S. Bureau of the Census.1975. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office .
31.
—. 1993. Money Income of Households, Families, and Persons in the United States: 1992. Current Population Reports P60-184. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
32.
—. 1997. Current Population Reports. Series P-20. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office , Mar.
33.
—. 1998. Table F-2. Share of Aggregate Income Received by Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of Families (All Races): 1947-1997. Available at http://www.census.gov:80/hhes/income/histinc/f02.html .
34.
Warren, Mark R.1996. Creating a Multi-Racial Democratic Community: Case Study of the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation. Paper presented to conference on Social Networks and Urban Poverty, 1-2 Mar., Russell Sage Foundation, New York .
35.
Wilson, William Julius. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
36.
—. 1999. Bridge over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
