The Predatory Rhetorics of Urban Development

Neoliberalism and the Illusory Promise of Black Middle-Class Communities

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2135692
AutoresKevin L Clay (0000-0001-8339-9237, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey), Jonathan D Hill (0000-0002-4357-4034, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume20
Fascículo2
Páginas371-390
Data de publicação2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoDu Bois Review Social Science Research on Race (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1742-058X • E-ISSN: 1742-0598
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1742058x23000048
OpenAlexW4365517230
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas26

In this article, we reflect on the pernicious nature of rhetoric aimed at soliciting Black community support for predatory urban development schemes. Highlighting recent examples of Urban One Casino + Resort's development campaign in Richmond, Virginia, and the messaging leveraged by political leaders on behalf of SoFi stadium and the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, we find that discursive moves made by public and private stakeholders reflect what we call the "predatory rhetorics of urban development." We argue that these rhetorics intend to enlist divested Black communities as supporters of development projects that concentrate wealth and power in the hands of economic and political elites. They do so by playing on Black desires for social and economic inclusion into American middle-class community life. Four common threads of predatory rhetoric appear across both contexts. They are 1) seizing the real needs and concerns of stigmatized places, 2) relying on representational politics to mitigate issues of trust, 3) the neoliberal framing of American internal colonization as a problem that requires extractive private development solutions and, finally, 4) dissimulating intra-community class interests to consolidate "Black needs." We reflect on the outcomes supported by these rhetorics across both development projects and raise several points of further consideration as we hope for more organized responses to such rhetorics in the future

Community development · Framing (construction · Geography · Middle class · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Rhetoric · Sociology · Urban planning · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Urban Planning and Governance