The Politics of Exclusion: The Failure of Race-Neutral Policies in Urban America (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Politics of Exclusion: The Failure of Race-Neutral Policies in Urban America Andrew L. Aoki (bio) The Politics of Exclusion: The Failure of Race-Neutral Policies in Urban America, by Leland T. Saito. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009. Xiii + 275 pp. $22.95 paper. ISBN 0-8047-5930-8. Leland Saito has again enhanced our understanding of the complexities of ethnoracial politics in America. As in his previous works, Saito offers a detailed description of key actors and their interactions, providing the reader with a wealth of data. The questions he addresses are complex, and he does an excellent job of noting that issues of redistricting, economic development, and historic preservation have many facets and can be viewed from different perspectives. The challenge presented by the complexity of these issues is quite daunting, however, and there is a need to look even more closely at the differential effects of public policy, such as how those effects may vary by social class. Nevertheless, those interested in ethnoracial politics in the United States will learn much from this book. Examining redevelopment and historical preservation in San Diego and redistricting in California and New York City, Saito argues that policies that might be considered neutral with regard to race can in fact affect ethnoracial groups differently.1 Because of the continuing legacy of past discrimination, policies that appear to be race-neutral may in fact perpetuate that legacy, making it likely that disadvantaged racial groups will continue to be disadvantaged. In New York City, for example, most members of the redistricting commission failed to understand the way that a range of policy decisions and court cases had worked together to institutionalize conditions that placed Asian Americans at a political disadvantage. The refusal to allow for statistical adjustment for census undercounts, for instance, harmed Asian American interests in New York City, because the city's Asian Americans needed the most complete count possible in order to have any chance of seeing the creation of an Asian American majority district. The woefully insufficient number of interpreters at polling places added further to disadvantages [End Page 151] for Asian Americans in Chinatown—disadvantages that had deep roots in de jure and de facto discrimination stretching back for more than a century. The dynamics Saito describes in San Diego might be more fittingly labeled "color-blind" than "race-neutral." Saito finds that the historic preservation efforts of Chinese Americans and African Americans there were hampered because policy makers were ignorant of the importance of the Chinese Mission and the Douglas Hotel in the local history of these groups. Policy makers initially saw only the history of white San Diegoans, although this particular color blindness lessened considerably when Chinese American and African American activists organized to educate others about their respective histories. Whether we label the policies "color-blind" or "race-neutral," however, more distinctions need to be drawn in assessing policy effects. There may be a substantial difference between the type of race-neutral measures advocated by Abigail Thernstrom and those recommended by William Julius Wilson (two of the primary writers Saito is challenging in this work). Some color-blind policies may put already disadvantaged groups at an even greater disadvantage, while others may be beneficial to these groups. Historic preservation policies that stress economic benefits seem likely to make life more difficult for economically distressed households, because they promote redevelopment and renovation that replace affordable housing and services with expensive lofts and amenities designed to appeal to tourists. Other policies can have the opposite effect. For example, electoral reform that greatly eases registration requirements may benefit low-income voters, who are more likely to find themselves disenfranchised by early registration rules, but will not benefit upper-income voters, who are less likely to be inconvenienced by existing rules and who do not share the policy preferences of the poor. Saito does suggest that policies "described as race-neutral" can have "positive consequences for everyone" (205), but this claim is too strong. Virtually all policies have winners and losers. For instance, better streets can indeed benefit everyone, but no city can afford to improve all its roads; only some areas will benefit, but...