Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia

ISBN: 0871548259

Author: Simms, Angela

Condition: New

Prince Georges County, Maryland, is a suburban jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and is home to the highest concentration of Black middle-class residents in the United States. As such, it is well positioned to overcome White domination and anti-Black racism and their social and economic consequences. Yet Prince Georges does not raise tax revenue sufficient to provide consistent high-quality public goods and services. In Fighting for a Foothold, sociologist Angela Simms examines the factors contributing to Prince Georges financial troubles.Simms draws on two years of observations of Prince Georges Countys budget and policy development processes, interviews with nearly 60 Prince Georges leaders and residents, and budget and policy analysis for Prince Georges County and its two Whiter, wealthier neighbors, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia. She argues legacy and ongoing government policies and business practices-such as federal mortgage insurance policy prior to 1968, local government reliance on property taxes, and private investment patterns-have resulted in disparities in wealth accumulation between Black and White Americans, not only for individuals and families but local jurisdictions as well. Prince Georges County has a lower cost of living than its Whiter, wealthier neighbors. As the most affordable county bordering D.C., it attracts a disproportionate share of the regions core middle-class, lower middle-class, working class, and low-income residents, resulting in greater budget pressure.Prince Georges uses the same strategies as majority-White jurisdictions to increase revenue, such as taxing at similar rates and vying for development opportunities but does not attain the same financial returns. Ultimately, Simms contends Prince Georges endures relative regional burden and that the county effectively subsidizes Whiter counties wealth accumulation. She offers policy recommendations for removing the constraints Prince Georges County and other majority-Black jurisdictions navigate, including increased federal and state taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations, which will enhance the capacity for government to distribute and redistribute resources equitably; increased state-level funding of public goods and services, which would decrease local jurisdictions reliance on locally-generated tax revenue; and the creation of equity funds to remediate harms inflicted upon Black Americans.Fighting for a Foothold is an in-depth analysis of the fiscal challenges experienced by Prince Georges County and by the suburban Black middle-class and majority-Black jurisdictions, more broadly. The book reveals how race, class, and local jurisdiction boundaries in metropolitan areas interact to create different material living conditions for Americans.