Nonprofits in Production: Race, Place, and the Politics of Care by Juan

Nonprofits in Production: Race, Place, and the Politics of Care By Juan Carlos Herrera A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Ramon Grosfoguel, Chair Professor Thomas Biolsi Professor Jake Kosek Fall 2013 Abstract Nonprofits in Production: Race, Place, and the Politics of Care by Juan Carlos Herrera Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Ramon Grosfoguel, Chair In the contemporary United States, nonprofits serve as central conduits of urban reform and welfare provision including legal, health and job assistance for racialized neighborhoods. Despite the salience of nonprofit organizations in urban politics, few academic analyses investigate their crucial political work. My work critiques normative academic and popular understandings of nonprofit organizations as ahistorical and nonpolitical service providers fundamentally delinked from the state. In contrast, my dissertation examines how nonprofits operated as a critical technology that intensified the state’s relationship to urban racialized communities in the mid 20th century. Based on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, CA and archival research in four different sites, I argue that nonprofit organizations are a powerful vehicle in the remaking of contemporary racial subjectivities and citizenship. As critical community-routed organizations, they negotiate how urban racial subjects relate to the state and social movements. This project probes the material and political consequences of discourses of benevolence in state, nonprofit, and social movement projects. By focusing on projects professing compassion, I unsettle dominant academic frameworks that overwhelmingly focus on two problematics regarding race making: 1) the state as a monolithic entity monopolizing all modes of power; and 2) the attribution of intentional violence to projects of race making. I advance the “politics of care” as an analytic for understanding contentious projects of urban improvement normalized as benevolent acts of kindness. Academic debates typically construct welfare as the privileged site of state projects. In contrast, my conceptualization of the “politics of care” attends to the role of the state and the work of non-state actors such as nonprofit health clinics, legal-aid centers, and community development corporations. Far more than mere service providers, nonprofits enact diverse techniques of government that target specific racial identities and populations. My findings reveal that nonprofit organizations are a productive site of power in contemporary urban racialized communities like Fruitvale. Nonprofits engaged in multiple sites/acts of production that have spatial, demographic, as well as political effects. First, they build extensive patronage networks that cohere Fruitvale residents as a united Latino “community” despite the existence of diverse and often competing factions along class and nationality. By producing this community as a target of projects of improvement and care, nonprofits also link Fruitvale with 1 fiscal patrons outside the geographical confines of the neighborhood. Second, they market the neighborhood as Latino and produce representations of Latinidad that are architecturally and aesthetically visible in the urban form. Third, nonprofit-mediated projects demarcate Latinos from other racial groups and politicize the neighborhood as a haven for immigrant rights and in so doing link residents with constricted citizenship to alternative avenues of belonging. My study fills an important gap in the social movement literature by demonstrating the diversity of 1960s Chicano mobilizations, how they related to African American movements, Asian American experiences, and how this translated into contemporary political formations. Furthermore, my dissertation troubles academic and popular conceptions of Oakland as a Black/White city. This move remaps Latino Studies scholarship into less traditional areas of inquiry outside the metropoles of Los Angeles and Chicago. 2 Table of Contents Nonprofits in Production: Race, Place, and the Politics of Care Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………......……ii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1 Unsettling the Geography of Oakland’s War on Poverty……………………………………......20 Chapter 2 Revolution Interrupted: Racial and Spatial Effects of the 1969 Tax Reform Act…………………………………………36 Chapter 3 Marketing Latinidad: Urban Redevelopment and the Mechanics of Racialization……………………………………..62 Chapter 4 Disciplining Space: Nonprofits and the Regulation of Undocumented Labor………………………………………...83 Chapter 5 Care is Political: Nonprofit Organizations in Defense of Immigrant Rights………………………………………99 Conclusion The Politics of Care…………………………………………………………………………….123 References………………………………………………………………………………….......131 i Acknowledgements This dissertation has been a collective endeavor from its inception and has grown tremendously through the support and constructive feedback of numerous individuals. I am indebted to all the people that allowed me to come into their lives and accepted me as a colleague in various nonprofit and community projects. This dissertation is not a full testament to the relationships of trust, love, and struggle that I built with Fruitvale residents and nonprofit leaders. As with all forms of writing this dissertation is but a small sliver of the depth of experiences I was blessed with. I thank Mara Chavez for being the first person that welcomed me to Centro Legal de la Raza and enthusiastically took me on as a volunteer. She introduced me to Fruitvale and its numerous nonprofit organizations. Mara has been a tremendous friend and academic colleague throughout this entire journey. This dissertation and my experience in Fruitvale would not be the same without the phenomenal Laura Perez—a tremendous human being, activist, leader, and friend. I have never met a person so dedicated to an organization and to the community it serves. I learned so much from seeing Laura in action, from seeing her marvelous growth as an executive director, and her unyielding compassion for others. I thank Kathy Ahoy for being a compassionate human being and for showing me the importance of the “trainer-trainee” model that I relate to my role of mentoring students. Amy Lam was a fantastic role model and friend and showed me the importance of putting a PhD into action outside the confines of academia. I learned so much from working with my fellow board of directors at the nonprofit I call Bienestar Project. There are too many Fruitvale residents to name who welcomed me into their homes and that filled me with immense gratitude for allowing me to be a part of their community. I thank all those people who graciously shared their stories with me, especially the 1960s activist whose stories gave me chills and made me wish I lived in those times. I especially thank those activists who thanked me for interviewing them, who appreciated that their stories were being heard. These interviews filled me with so much inspiration, especially on one occasion when after thanking a 1960s leader for his time, he thanked me for allowing him to “relive his youth.” My path on this journey began at UCLA through my participation in the UCLA McNair Program. I thank La’Tonya Rease Miles (LT) for being such an inspiring mentor and for instilling in all of us McNair scholars a profound insight of the politics of research and academic knowledge production. I thank my fellow McNair scholars for being great friends and colleagues throughout this journey, especially Kency Cornejo, Claudia Sandoval, and Romeo Guzman. At UCLA, I also thank Maylei Blackwell who took me under her wing when I was a young undergrad and has supported me ever since. Her sharp critical engagement with my work and attention to detail helped me tighten my arguments and analytical skills. Even after I left UCLA, she continued to invite me to join working groups that were integral in shaping my graduate training and confidence as a scholar. I am so blessed to be returning to UCLA to work once again under Maylei’s mentorship and look forward to the path ahead. UC Berkeley has been an incredibly good place to me. My experience at UC Berkeley was shaped by the support I received from fellow students, mentors, and on campus institutions. One of the most rewarding experiences was my two-year fellowship through the Center for Research on Social Change Graduate Fellows Training Program. I was fortunate to engage with amazing ii scholars and build long-term academic friendships I continue to cherish to this day. I thank my all-star cohort: Tamera Lee Stover, Becky Alexander, Emily Gleason, Nate McClintock, Carmen Martinez-Calderon, Eric Pido, and Nicol U. I have never been a part of a more thoughtful group of scholars. My experience as a fellow would not have been the same without the support of an remarkable team of mentors: Christine Trost, David Minkus, and Deborah Lustig. I especially thank Christine Trost for her continued support. I knew I could always count on Christine for critical feedback on my work and professional advice. I was fortunate to participate in many working groups throughout my time at UC Berkeley. I learned immensely from other colleagues and benefitted from their thoughtful engagement with my work. I thank the entire

Load more