Studentification and Political Displacement of the Black Worker Electorate
Meghna Chandra (Loyola University Chicago)
While Democratic Socialist of America (DSA)-endorsed progressive candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been winning elections in select cities and neighborhoods, it is unclear the extent to which they are backed by working class Americans. It is also unclear how these candidates relate to older established urban traditions and electorates of progressive change, most especially the African American electorate. Some commentators have argued that progressive victories are powered by gentrification, or the replacement of working-class neighborhoods by transient educated professionals (Jilani and Grim 2018).
To explore these dynamics further, I study a case of university-driven gentrification in Philadelphia, trying to understand the extent to which gentrification driven by universities, or studentification (Smith 2005) is related to the victories of these progressive candidates and displacement of the Black electorate. Scholars of studentification have understudied its electoral impact. The analysis draws on census and voting data to examine the extent to which political wards that were once a stronghold of Black political power in Philadelphia have studentified, and whether studentified neighborhoods played a role in two elections that saw the unseating of long-time incumbents by progressive newcomers. In other words, my study is trying to get at whether studentification is correlated with political displacement of what W.E.B. Du Bois called “the Black Worker”.
The work of W.E.B. Du Bois helps us understand the geography and significance of Black Political Power, and why it is central to Democracy writ large in America. His work Black Reconstruction (Du Bois 1998) shows how the enfranchisement of the African American people, the historical force he calls “The Black Worker”, is related to the extent to which the American masses could achieve democracy in substance—that is, economic democracy, or the just distribution of wealth. Of particular relevance is the demand of enfranchised Black governments for land ownership, which was intimately linked to economic redistribution and political power.
Philadelphia is a particularly important place to study university-driven change through a DuBoisian lens because the city has a strong history of low-income and Black homeownership, a feature that attracted migrant during the Great Migration, who inherited the Reconstruction project. This history goes back to the Build and Loan Movement which financed the construction of affordable homeownership housing stock, the Black Build and Loan Movement which leveraged Civil Rights networks and leadership to increase Black Homeownership, and the Black Power Movement which demanded homeownership for the poor as a form of self-determination (Countryman 2006, Nier III 2011). This history helps understand why neighborhoods of Black homeowners, or neighborhoods of the Black Worker, are closely linked to Black political empowerment.
My analysis looks at changes and election results in two political districts which encase two Philadelphia universities and Black Worker neighborhoods: The 2019 City Council 3rd District Primary and 2020 188th Pennsylvania House District Primary. These districts are particularly important because they were the constituency of Lucien Blackwell. Until those races, they were controlled by long time incumbents with roots in Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia—Jannie Blackwell and Jim Roebuck.
Findings show that the 3rd District and 188th District have indeed become younger, more educated, denser, more Asian and Latino, and more transient while also becoming less Black, less White, less owner-occupied, and less Black homeowner from 2005-2015. This follows a spatial pattern spreading from universities and branching outward over time.
Figures 3, 4, and 5 show mapping of the 3rd District and 188th District election. They reveal two distinct voting blocs: the first of political divisions closest to universities that are dense with 5 or more units per structure and high turnout (a studentified voting block), and political divisions farther away (the Black Worker voting block) that tend to be single family with higher concentrations of black homeowners. The studentified voting block was decisive to the victory of newcomers; high turnout studentified districts made up over 2/3 of Krajewski’s 2625 margin of victory, and high turnout studentified districts made up 108.9% of Gauthier’s 2625 margin of victory.
An important implication of these elections is that both newcomers Jamie Gauthier and Rick Krajewski positioned themselves strongly as “anti-gentrification” candidates unseating “machine incumbents”. They advocated strongly for the marginalized and blamed incumbents for gentrification (Geeting 2019; McMenamin 2020). However, their base was strongest in studentifying areas that were closest to universities. This discrepancy is like the political reality of other progressive candidates like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The disparity between their political base and their expressed ideological commitments, and the correlation between gentrification via studentification and self-identified progressives should raise some alarm and self-reflection for those who genuinely wish to see political empowerment of the poor and oppressed. The work of Du Bois shows that the political and economic enfranchisement of African Americans is a crucial aspect of any movement for progressive change.
However, Black Worker districts did not vote unanimously for Blackwell and Roebuck, suggesting dissatisfaction with the status quo. For the Black Worker electorate to come alive again, there must be a renewal of the principles that animated it: self-determination, working-class organization, and militancy rooted in long historic struggle.