The Bridge Over the Racial Divide

William Julius Wilson. The Bridge Over The Racial Divide: Rising Inequality And Coalition Politics. University of California Press, 1999. 163 pp. hardcover. $25

Reviewed by Robert Jaquay

In The Bridge Over The Racial Divide: Rising Inequality And Coalition Politics, William Julius Wilson calls for a grassroots, multi-racial, bipartisan political coalition that can take on issues critical to poor and working class families. Such an alliance, Wilson believes, is needed to respond to a political climate that emphasizes racial differences more than it emphasizes commonalities of its citizens. In this economy of increasingly global scale with decreasing demand for low-skilled labor, widening gaps of income and slow growth of real wages, workers are vulnerable. Government policies adopted within the past decade have exacerbated these inequalities, increased the stresses felt by ordinary families and consequently  must be countered.

Though a slim volume, in no way can this book be considered light reading. Expanding upon a lecture delivered in 1996 at Berkeley honoring the memory of late political scientist Aaron Wildavsky, Wilson builds his case for new political voices.

Wilson opens by noting the dramatic decrease in overt racism and support for segregation. Yet, he also observes the residue of opinion (a more subtle form of cultural racism) held by many that African Americans are responsible for their inferior economic status because of their cultural traits, and therefore, are undeserving of governmental assistance. This attitude is fostered by a two-decade period of wage decline and, even in the low unemployment of the ’90s, a widespread fear of downsizing. Racial tensions and fiscal stresses arising from urban sprawl – further isolating poor minorities in central cities – only reinforce the perception. These anxieties, Wilson contends, make people more receptive to simplistic, divisive ideology that deflect attention from the complicated sources of their problems. New public dialogue on how our society’s problems are defined and addressed – a conversation that recognizes existing racial ideology and attempts to form policy ideas benefiting a wide spectrum of groups – is seen as essential for multiracial political cooperation.

Wilson’s term “new public dialogue” is illustrated in his analysis of the changing demand for labor in the United States. An entire chapter is devoted to topics such as globalization of markets and increased penetration of computer technologies into the workplace, with emphasis on how these phenomena fundamentally shift demand for the various skill levels of workers. The decreasing demand for low-skilled workers, Wilson observes, impacts African Americans more negatively than other better educated, more highly trained groups. Thus, he asserts, no group would benefit more from creation of a progressive multi-racial political coalition concerned with the economic fate of poor and working-class families.

What sort of government policies and actions would be the focus of the progressive, diverse political coalition Wilson urges? At the federal level, proposals to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit is just one example. Further illustrating potential interventions, Wilson suggests vetting Federal Reserve Board appointees on their willingness to balance full employment goals with containment of inflation. Throughout the book, Wilson urges an economic agenda of concern to all, whether black, white, Latino, Asian or Native American. Attacking issues that are not race explicit has long been successful for the various local and regional groups operating under the umbrella of the Industrial Areas Foundation, founded over a half century ago by Saul Alinsky. Yet, Wilson wonders, can this tack work on a national level?

(Though local and regional coalitions such as the IAF groups are discussed, this book does not address place-based strategies; NFG members with primary interest in such approaches will have to think through how this national, macro-level discussion applies to a more localized plane.)

The author recognizes that an agenda that is not race explicit will attract whites as well as blacks, Latinos and others, but may not be compelling enough to attract a significant segment of the black population. To address this dilemma, he explores whether it is possible to place affirmative action on the program in a meaningful way that does not become divisive or erode support of whites. After a lucid exposition on affirmative action, Wilson cogently concludes that it is possible – by shifting emphasis from numeric guidelines (which connote to many preferential results, quotas, lowering standards and reverse discrimination) to notions of increasing opportunity by way of a more flexible, merit-based criteria of evaluation. 

With this book, William Julius Wilson contributes to a philosophy and strategy for political action developed by a long line of American civil rights advocates. An important, yet subtle means of assessing this book is found on the dedication page. The Bridge Over The Racial Divide is dedicated to Bayard Rustin, perhaps most famous as the behind-the-scenes coordinator of logistics for the 1963 March On Washington. Yet, Rustin most likely is remembered by Wilson in this special way because of Rustin’s life-long support for American labor and its commitment to social and economic justice. Rustin learned from his mentor Philip Randolph that African Americans are workers with a vital stake in the labor movement and this country’s economy. During the 1960s, when Rustin became embroiled in debate over the efficacy of the Black Power philosophy; he argued that it was essential to resist separatism and to seek a rightful place in the mainstream. Wilson freshens Rustin’s vision to the moment and strengthens it with the weight of his research, logic and reputation. 

Wilson takes on some personal risk with this book. In stating his case that serious consideration should be given to a multi-racial class-based coalition, he begins from his highly acclaimed insights into poverty and race. Then, he boldly steps from that safe ground into analysis involving global economics and political action, subjects that are not his acknowledged expertise. But Wilson accomplishes more than simply integrating other academic disciplines into his argument; he transcends the academy into a larger, more raucous marketplace of public discourse.

Previous books by this author, including The Truly Disadvantaged and When Work Disappears, are brilliant expositions of sociological conditions and offer wise policy prescriptions to problems described therein. By virtue of these works, critics have placed Wilson in the company of top-rank analytic writers such as Michael Harrington and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. However, Bridge Over the Racial Divide is as much a call to action as it is a public policy treatise. As an exhortation, it is different in character than other books by William Julius Wilson. In this vein of writing, who are Wilson’s peers?

It’s not that Wilson jeopardizes his chair at Harvard or hazards rescission of his MacArthur prize. Yet, he places his unbroken string of dead-on, seminal books on the line. In other words, can Bridge Over the Racial Divide measure up to the high personal standards that the author has set for himself?

One only needs to look at the activities of NFG to realize that Wilson’s book is exerting influence. Genesis of the theme for September’s annual conference in Detroit – The New Economy – A Rising Tide for All? – is found within this book’s pages. At NFG – and no doubt within many other circles – serious consideration of building an effective multi-racial, class-based coalition concerned with the economic fate of poor and working-class families is underway. As to whether such an alliance actually will form, only time will tell.

Robert Jaquay is Associate Director of the George Gund Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio.

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