The Color of Power: Racial Coalitions and Political Power in Oakland

Introduction

In their book Protest Is Not Enough1 (1984), Browning, Marshall, and Tabb argued that minority incorporation in the political life of cities was based on biracial coalitions formed by the electoral mobilization of African Americans combined with the backing of progressive whites. Although Hispanics were at times associated with these coalitions, their role was never necessary or sufficient for minority political incorporation up to the early 1990s.2 The city of Oakland, California, was one of the case studies Browning et al. picked as a significant example of successful liberal black-and-white coalitions. After several decades of experience with African American mayors and changing demographics, we need to reflect on the adequacy of this paradigm in light of the contemporary situation. Massive immigration has brought substantial demographic change to predominantly black cities while gentrification has attracted young white-collar professionals to many inner cities. Meanwhile, a number of predominantly black cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and even Atlanta have faced a decline in black population, both in absolute numbers and population share.3 This phenomenon can be explained by the cities’ spatial assimilation into the suburbs and recent desegregation, along with their increased diversity within the inner city.4 Contemporary studies have identified patterns of conflicts and coalitions that arise among the main racial and ethnic groups in areas that were once majority African American and are now becoming more diverse.5 Considering the diffusion of immigration across the territory,6 it is likely that many cities with a large black population and a dynamic economy will face similar trends, raising the question of the future of black political power and minority incorporation. To what extent, in these new circumstances, can black power rely on biracial coalitions and progressive politics as it did forty years ago? It seems unlikely that African Americans will be in a position to form governing coaliIntroduction 2 The Color of Power tions with business interests as durable as those found in C. N. Stone’s analysis of Atlanta.7 Black control seems to be more tenuous and fragile than it was ten or fifteen years ago in cities where we find these new demographic patterns.8 Yet raw numbers might not be the primary reason. There are several possible explanations for the changing fortunes of black empowerment. This case study considers the city of Oakland, California, after more than two decades of black elected mayors. Because of the demographic and political changes Oakland has gone through over the past forty years, it is now at the cutting edge of new coalition politics. The main findings are that black urban power in Oakland is still predominantly coalition based but involves new coalition partners with the demographic growth and electoral mobilization of Hispanics and Asians. While the black-led coalition still relies on white progressive support, this support has weakened, mostly because of the broadening of the progressives’ agenda. Finally , the black community seems less likely to vote on pure identity grounds and increasingly inclined to vote on issues and interests. Methodology This book is based on a mixture of elite interviews and aggregate data. Semiopen qualitative interviews were conducted between 1993 and 2009 with the major players of Oakland politics, including Mayor Elihu Harris, Mayor Jerry Brown, Police Chief Wayne Tucker, City Attorney John Russo, most of the city council and school board members and their staff, businesspeople, community and church leaders, police officers, schoolteachers, members of grassroots organizations, local reporters, and residents. In addition, I attended many community and city council meetings and regularly read the newspapers to keep up with the salient issues and key actors. This study also utilizes data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Oakland police department, the Alameda County registrar of voters, the Oakland Unified School District and the Statewide Database of the Institute of Governmental Studies of the University of California at Berkeley. Most of the data collected were used to develop maps. This study is based on a multidisciplinary approach within a field called urban geopolitics in France. Geopolitics has become a buzzword in the media, lacking definition and often referring to complex conflictual situations between nation-states. Definitions, however, abound in the literature, reflecting an ongoing and broad intellectual debate. The concept of critical geopolitics emerged in the 1970s in opposition to “classical geopolitics,” which refers to Introduction 3 the “objective” and “neutral” stance adopted by the great powers up to...