All Together Now?: African Americans

September 2011 All Together Now? African Americans, Immigrants and the Future of California Manuel Pastor Juan De Lara Justin Scoggins Acknowledgements This report is the result of many hands, many eyes, and many voices. While the three main authors are more than willing to take the responsibility for any miscues or misstatements, we are hesitant to take too much credit for any insights we might offer. For that, we thank the wide range of community leaders who have inspired us over the years with their commitment to multiracial organizing, and the somewhat smaller but no less inspirational circle that agreed to speak with us in the process of this research. As for the research itself, our thanks go to the professional and graduate student staff of USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, especially Vanessa Carter, Cadonna Dory, Jennifer Ito, Erin McMorrow, Rhonda Ortiz and Jennifer Tran. Thanks also to Dowell Myers, Veronica Terriquez and Ange-Marie Hancock for providing supportive criticism along the way; we did not use all your comments, to be sure, but we benefited mightily from your persistent questions and thoughts. This report was primarily funded by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, with major supplemental support from the James Irvine Foundation and additional support for the economic analysis from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. At Haas Jr., we thank Cathy Cha for her willingness to bet on the potential importance of this work and at Irvine, we thank Jim Canales for making an early investment in the idea that a new Center at USC could provide a different approach to the challenges facing California and its immigrant population. On the community side, we thank Gerald Lenoir of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration for his early input and thoughtful work on connecting immigrant rights and racial justice; Reshma Shamasunder of the California Immigrant Policy Center for vouching for our work with various powers that be; Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles for demonstrating what it means to lead for Black-immigrant coalition- building; and Marqueece Harris-Dawson of Community Coalition for both being an exemplar of collaboration, and for listening and offering comments on repeated iterations of this research. In 1971, Marvin Gaye inspired a generation by blending Motown rhythms with political consciousness. In his signature song, “What’s Going On?” he wrote: Mother, mother There’s too many of you crying Brother, brother, brother There’s far too many of you dying You know we’ve got to find a way To bring some lovin’ here today In a world of economic distress and widening disparities, there are still too many crying and dying. While some may seek to divide our nation by more and more slices, we are healthier when we bridge across difference and reject the polarization of communities by race, nativity, or any of a series of other markers of difference. We are, in short, better together than apart – and there is a way to embrace the challenges we face in coming together as simply growing pains on the way to a common future. We hope this report contributes to that spirit and that future. For a copy of this report as well as a longer version with more methodological details, visit: http://csii.usc.edu/publications.html . contents Executive Summary �� 1 Introduction �� 4 Living Together �� 7 Sharing Space �� 10 The Demography of the Neighborhoods �� 15 Income, Education and Community �� 17 Working Together �� 21 Who’s Working Where �� 23 Education, Wages, and the Immigrant Impact �� 25 Occupational Exposure and Change �� 29 Organizing Together �� 36 Can’t We All Just Get Along? �� 37 Policy Across Difference �� 41 Making Change: The Role of Movements �� 45 Filling Gaps: Opportunities for Philanthropy �� 49 Everyday Social Justice �� 52 Appendix A� Data, Data Tables, Methodology �� 54 Appendix B� Interviewees and their Organizations �� 60 References �� 61 executive summAry California is often on the cutting edge of demographic to reduce disproportionate incarceration, and the change. Between 1980 and 2000, the state experienced organizing around housing, jobs and the environment an ethnic transformation in which we became the that has crossed the boundaries of race. Missed is first large “majority-minority” state – exactly what the story of collaboration in the face of conflict. is projected for the U.S. between now and 2050. This report tries to get at just that – how to build strong In hindsight, our bumpy ride through that change African American-immigrant alliances that honestly foreshadowed politics elsewhere in the nation: our deal with points of tension and build towards a 1994’s Proposition 187 highlighted our conflict stronger, more just California. Here, we synthesize the about undocumented immigration in ways echoed results of a much longer multi-year study in which we in Arizona’s 2010 law, SB1070, and in restrictionist offer an empirically-grounded analysis of the good and policies being considered and passed in other states. the bad of these demographic and economic changes, California is also a harbinger of the social dynamics honestly exploring the challenges and possibilities soon to sweep other parts of the nation as a result of living together, working together and organizing of this demographic change. While most analysts together. Our basic findings are straight forward: have focused on the shrinking white (once-) First,▪ Many living African together American is common neighborhoods but complex: have majority, another important story has been the ▪ experienced a sharp increase in immigrant growing proximity of African Americans and the residents state’s immigrants. Increasingly, immigrants, particularly Latinos, have moved into traditionally , some with the Black populations Black neighborhoods, transforming (and often remaining relatively stable, some experiencing revitalizing) the urban landscape with new a sharp decline. These latter communities may businesses,hood new churches, and newbarrio ways of be especially important to understand and assist living – but also generating a palpable sense of as there is often a mismatch between existing loss as the has become the and Black African American community institutions and new political and cultural influence has eroded. ▪▪ immigrantBlack and immigrant populations. presence have increased in a series of neighborhoods Adding to this are economic concerns in a state economy shaken not just by the current bout of high – much like in the unemployment but also by longer-term processes American South. One set of both populations is of deindustrialization and dislocation. In this moving to older suburban areas for better school context, immigrants have helped to prop up sagging opportunities. Another set moved to the suburban businesses, providing new consumer demand as well fringe where Blacks and immigrants found as loyal and often less expensive labor. But while cheaper housing but are now stranded amongst immigrant employees have revitalized California’s ▪▪ foreclosuresFinally, the immigrants and unemployment. mixing it up with African economy and labor movement, some residents have Americans are not just Latino rightfully worried about the negative impacts on . Asians make up native-born employment and wages, particularly a sizable share of immigrants in California, and of less-skilled and less-connected Black workers. in neighborhoods where African Americans and As African Americans and immigrants increasingly immigrants live together. This is especially true in bump up against each other in their neighborhoods neighborhoods where both populations are newly and the economy, the media has focused on the arrived, but also in places where there has been a tensions and conflicts. The targeting of Blacks by historical presence of African Americans. immigrant gang members, the hostility of older Second, economic competition cannot be African American residents to newcomers, and the denied▪▪ Despite but it theis not differences the main in story: neighborhood types, loss of Black political power as Latinos gain ground communities are actually more united

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