The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City

by Roger Sanjek

Before the next century is out, Americans of African, Asian, and Latin American ancestry will outnumber those of European origin. In the Elmhurst-Corona neighborhood of Queens, New York City, the transition occurred during the 1970s, and the area's two-decade experience of multiracial diversity offers us an early look at the future of urban America. The result of more than a dozen years' work, this remarkable book immerses us in Elmhurst-Corona's social and political life from the 1960s through the 1990s.

First settled in 1652, Elmhurst-Corona by 1960 housed a mix of Germans, Irish, Italians, and other "white ethnics." In 1990 this population made up less than a fifth of its residents; Latin American and Asian immigrants and African Americans comprised the majority. The Future of Us All focuses on the combined impact of racial change, immigrant settlement, governmental decentralization, and assaults on local quality of life which stemmed from the city's 1975 fiscal crisis and the policies of its last three mayors. The book examines the ways in which residents--in everyday interactions, block and tenant associations, houses of worship, small business coalitions, civic rituals, incidents of ethnic and racial hostility, and political struggles against overdevelopment, for more schools, and for youth programs--have forged and tested alliances across lines of race, ethnicity, and language.

From the telling local details of daily life to the larger economic and regional frameworks, this account of a neighborhood's transformation illuminates the issues that American communities will be grappling with in the coming decades.

Genres: New York, History, Race

400 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[lys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sanjek introduces a fascinating theoretical framework in his introduction, but fails to expand on it to the greatest possible degree. This is in large part because of the sheer scope of his endeavor. The book considers Elmhurst-Corona in relation to three forms of time (Braudel), three forms of space (Jacobs), and three forms of power (Leeds). Of these trios, Sanjek studies the mediating group between "big history" and "minuscule history" in conjunctures, bourgeois power and proletarian power in "organizational" power, and big city space and local neighborhood space in "district." These divisions are introduced in the introduction, yet largely unapplied in the remainder of the book, which focuses on the history of New York and various stories collected from field work. The savvy reader could cover only the introduction and epilogue and frankly not miss much.

Sanjek's method is also debatable, as his 13 years of fieldwork focus overwhelmingly on political meetings in Community District 4 (CD4), whose participants represent a tiny portion of the population and are overwhelmingly white. Sanjek's reliance on assistants to survey non-English speaking populations in CD4 and the resulting focus of the book on the area's white population also raise questions about how well he understands the community he studies. One feels that Sanjek's book may have benefited from a clearer thesis and an open focus on the white population.

Finally, the repeated emphasis on race used throughout this book made this reader uncomfortable. Sanjek fails to define what "race" is as a category of analysis. Identities are much more complicated than the color of one's skin, and Sanjek has perhaps succumbed to the very "positional" categorization that he so criticizes in his own conclusion.

Overall, a pleasure to read and a well-written book. Recommend for those interested in New York history, ethnography, and economic history.

[Tiffany Joy Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible archive of cultural history and thoughts on the future of our communities.

[Parag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding and fascinating study of the complex racial/ethnic group interaction in a couple of neighborhoods in Queens. Sanjek's premise is that there is a history of people working it out. I like that message.