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WHAT’S GOING ON?

Black Experiences of Latinization and Loss in South Los Angeles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2020

Pamela Stephens  and
Manuel Pastor
Pamela Stephens*
Affiliation:
Department of Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles
Manuel Pastor
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Southern California
*
Corresponding author: Pamela Stephens, Department of Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles, 3250 Public Affairs Building Box 951666, Los Angeles, CA90095-1656. E-mail: pstephens@ucla.edu
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Abstract

Once nearly eighty percent Black, South LA is now two-thirds Latino. The demographic change was due to many factors, including a Black exodus driven by economic precarity, fear of crime, and experiences of over-policing and a Latino influx initially spurred by an immigration surge that could not be accommodated in traditional entry neighborhoods. While earlier research often focused on the conflicts between groups, time has passed and our new work points to contemporary quotidian accommodations between residents. We also document an emerging style of Black-Brown community organizing that seeks to both acknowledge the nuance of difference and create a shared sense of place identity. This article lifts up the Black experience in that transition of space and politics and notes how a sense of loss can result from such a dramatic change in a place that was once an iconic and literal home for much of Black Los Angeles. We suggest that that sense of loss is exacerbated by a legacy of racist asset-stripping and a deep worry about Black erasure due to current displacement pressures from gentrification. We close by discussing how organizers and political leaders need to take these dynamics into account when both building coalitions and ensuring Black futures in what is now a Black-Brown political and social space.

Keywords

Demographic ChangeCommunity OrganizingRace RelationsPlace IdentityLos Angeles
Type
State of the Discipline
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , Spring 2020 , pp. 1 - 32
Copyright
© 2020 Hutchins Center for African and African American Research

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