Race and the Politics of Deception

What is the relationship between race and space, and how do racial politics inform the organization and development of urban locales?In Race and the Politics of Deception, Christopher Mele unpacks America’s history of dealing with racial problems through the inequitable use of public space. Mele focuses on Chester, Pennsylvania—a small city comprised of primarily low-income, black residents, roughly twenty miles south of Philadelphia. Like many cities throughout the United States, Chester is experiencing post-industrial decline. A development plan touted as a way to “save” the city, proposes to turn one section into a desirable waterfront destination, while leaving the rest of the struggling residents in fractured communities. Dividing the city into spaces of tourism and consumption versus the everyday spaces of low-income residents, Mele argues, segregates the community by creating a racialized divide. While these development plans are described as socially inclusive and economically revitalizing, Mele asserts that political leaders and real estate developers intentionally exclude certain types of people—most often, low-income people of color.Race and the Politics of Deception provides a revealing look at how our ever-changing landscape is being strategically divided along lines of class and race.

Christopher MelesRace and the Politics of Deceptionprovides an interesting and highly readable political and economic history of Chester, Pennsylvania, a small industrial city located in the southeastern corner of the state, between Philadelphia and Wilmington., Race and the Politics of Deceptionunmasks the brutal, insidious, and predatory politics of a political machine that raped and plundered the City of Chester, Pennsylvania...Meles research is rich and substantive., A strength of the book is a good number of concrete accounts of how the local politics of urban development is consistently and strategically anchored in the ideologies and rhetoric of race., Race and the Politics of Deception is a classic study which painstakingly details cities development and demise alongside their being inextricably tied to race and space. Mele's relational approach outlining contemporary urban social lifedeindustrialization, globalization, and continued structural inequalityadds to the social history of cities and the structural inequality plaguing American cities and their residents. A great read!, Race and the Politics of Deception makes a strong contribution to urban studies in exploring the dynamics of urban change within broader contexts of racial and historical inequity. Its nuanced analyses of the historical, local politics of Chester would be a fantastic teaching resource in history, urban studies, and sociology departments alike. In particular, the text serves as a prime teaching tool for historical methodologies that seek to explore race and racial politics.

Christopher Mele is an urban sociologist at the University at Buffalo. He is the author or editor of several books, including Selling the Lower East Side: Culture, Real Estate, and Resistance in New York City.