Customer Reviews

Double Trouble: Black Mayors, Black Communities, and the Call for a Deep Democracy (Transgressing Boundaries)

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Double Trouble should be required reading in any academic study of politics, as well as by anyone remotely involved in the political process (community/grassroots organizations, pastors, union leaders, candidates, campaign staff, etc).

The book gives a snapshot of what has been and a blueprint for what can be when a community and its elected leadership work together.

The conventional wisdom of the past was that if we (Blacks) had a seat at the table...or God forbid if we had the seat at the head of the table(the HNIC)...we could somehow right some of the injustices done in and to our communities almost at will.

Author, J. Phillip Thompson, presents an effective and compelling analysis of the realities of the "political game," especially the limitations on Black Mayors and in particular, Black Mayors who want to be re-elected (his analysis can also be applied to most, if not all, Black elected officials). The dilemna is "double trouble" because Black politicians get it from both sides- you're darned if you do and darned if you don't.

The author's call for "deep pluralism" is largely academic and seems more of an insertion into the larger debate of how Black Mayors can provide effective representation within the capitalist structure of politics.

I have already highly recommended the book to all of my political colleagues and friends.

"It is, quite simply, impossible to understand the evolution of the racial foundations of urban politics--and, indeed, all of contemporary urban politics in America--without reading Double Trouble." -- David N. Dinkins, 106th Mayor of New York City

"Double Trouble's transformative and incisive critique challenges conventional wisdom from both the right and left: Forgo blind faith in identity politics, overcome the myth of expert racelessness and re-engage the urban poor in revitalizing not only our cities but also our democracy." -- Lani Guinier, co-author of The Miner's Canary

"J. Phillip Thompson's Double Trouble is an outstanding piece of scholarship that combines astute analysis of race and politics in America's cities with deep reflections on the theory and practice of democracy in the United States. It has much to offer not only students of American politics, but also those who are concerned about how deliberative democracy and pluralism works, or should work, in the nation's cities." -- Michael Dawson, author of Behind the Mule and Black Visions

"Thompson provides an original and compelling way to think about the possibilities inherent in urban politics. His call for deep democracy shows why broad civic engagement in the black community is a necessary first step in creating a genuinely new politics in America." -- Margaret Weir, Professor of Political Science and Sociology, University of California, Berkeley

"Double Trouble brilliantly and bravely dissects the central paradox facing black mayors: pushing too hard for racial justice will cost the support of white elites, while pushing too little will further alienate black voters. The compelling portrait of the Dinkins administration is the best description now available of this paradox in operation. This is a path-breaking book." -- John Mollenkopf, author of The Contested City

"This theoretically bold and analytically brilliant book is an immediate classic. Double Trouble simultaneously exposes the vacuity of the liberal retreat from race and the savagery of the conservative manipulation of race. Anyone concerned with what politics and public policy can do to reduce inequality and to heal racial frictions must consider Thompson's indictment of both routine party politics and of black politics and heed his hopeful prescription for moving beyond the current stalemate." -- Lawrence D. Bobo, Professor of Sociology, Stanford University