Manufacturing Powerlessness in the Black Diaspora

Despite the economic utopianism brought on by globalization, effective solutions to the persistent plight of urban blacks throughout the African diaspora continue to elude scholars, politicians, and community leaders. Charles Green brings a decade of research and original fieldwork in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States to investigate the interface of the historic racism faced by these urban communities and contemporary trends of globalization. Green pays particular attention to the condition of the youth, whose aspirations, vulnerabilities, and insights into their own conditions are central to the future prospects for their communities as a whole. Considering the impacts of economic restructuring and cultural diffusion alike, his analysis asserts the importance of both global ties and local distinctiveness. Ultimately, Manufacturing Powerlessness aims to encourage the formation of alliances throughout the diaspora so that urban black communities can manufacture a future of empowerment. Visit the author's web page

Charles Green is Professor and Chairman in the Department of Sociology at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He has published in the areas of race and ethnic relations, urban politics, Caribbean migration, and comparative urban development issues. He is co-author of The Struggle for Black Empowerment in New York City: Beyond the Politics of Pigmentation, and editor of Globalization and Survival in the Black Diaspora: The New Urban Challenge.