Us versus Them: Race, Crime, and Gentrification in Chicago Neighborhoods

by Jan Doering

Crime and gentrification are hot button issues that easily polarize racially diverse neighborhoods. How do residents, activists, and politicians navigate the thorny politics of race as they fight crime or resist gentrification? And do conflicts over competing visions of neighborhood change necessarily divide activists into racially homogeneous camps, or can they produce more complex alliances and divisions? In Us versus Them, Jan Doering answers these questions through an in-depth study of two Chicago neighborhoods. Drawing on three and a half years of ethnographic fieldwork, Doering examines how activists and community leaders clashed and collaborated as they launched new initiatives, built coalitions, appeased critics, and discredited opponents. At the heart of these political maneuvers, he uncovers a ceaseless battle over racial meanings that unfolded as residents strove to make local initiatives and urban change appear racially benign or malignant. A thoughtful and clear-eyed contribution to the field, Us versus Them reveals the deep impact that competing racial meanings have on the fabric of community and the direction of neighborhood change.

254 pages, Hardcover

Published February 27, 2020

Reviews

[Viral · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall interesting book, if hyper specific, about community perceptions and attitudes towards crime and gentrification in the Far North Side Chicago neighborhoods of Edgewater and Rogers Park. As someone who lives in Rogers Park, it was extremely interesting to learn about this hyper specific history, as I had never heard these stories before. But I feel the book struggles to expand on the message of these two neighborhoods and explain why whats mentioned in their communities matters across Chicago and around the country. I think the connection exists, and I feel like I can extropolate it, but it would have been strengthened by it being made more explicit in the conclusion.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite its title, this book is specifically focused on "race, crime, and gentrification" in only two neighborhoods, Rogers Park and Uptown. As someone who regularly spends time in these areas and has a vested interested in learning about their history, I found this book to be an illuminating account of the various changes that led to the present-day. Doering's work presents a largely objective overview of the clashes between gentrifiers and their opponents that is sure to intrigue anyone with exposure to this dynamic in the most fascinating place in the Midwest, Chicago's Far North Side.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

This volume is just another racist discourse in favor of increasing the racial divide in an area in which the author has a personal interest.

My previous review was censored by the site.