Race & Class in LA Terms

Race as social construct

Race is NOT BIOLOGY. It’s created and reshaped by Social, Political, and Economic forces. Ex: Jewish people became considered white post WW2.

Racial formation

how Racial categories are produced, transformed, and dissolved in society

Racial project

Links RACIAL MEANING to SOCIAL STRUCTURE. Redistributes RESOURCES along racial lines (interpretation + redistribution)

Matrix of domination

Interconnected domains of power that produce and organize inequality across institutions and everyday life

Intersectionality

OVERLAPPING SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION: race, class, and gender that produce distinct experiences and outcomes

Toxic inequality

INTERLOCK RACIAL and ECONOMIC inequalities that reproduce disadvantage across generations

Racial wealth gap

Differences in ASSETS and FINANCIAL SECURITY persisting between racial groups. Example: Discriminatory public housing policies. Redlining.

Settler Colonialism

Structure to eliminate and replace Indigenous societies to claim land and sovereignty

An eliminatory option (Hernández)

State strategies that remove Indigenous presence and rights through legal, violent, or bureaucratic means. TONVA

Dispossession

The seizure of land, resources, and rights from Indigenous and marginalized communities. SPANISH LED DISPOSITION TO PUSH OUT TONGVA PEOPLE WITH RANCHOS

Carceral geography

Institutional systems NEAR MARGINALIZED POPULATIONS that criminalize, confine, and control marginalized populations. EX: MISSIONS surrounded Tongva

Mass incarceration as racial project

USE OF IMPRISSIONMENT to produce a racialized social order and redistribute resources. SPANISH MISSIONS Hernández – An Eliminatory Option

Class (relational)

A person/group's relation to production, ownership, and control of resources. Shapes life, access, experience Song – Class

Racialized labor

RACIAL HIERARCHY BUILT INTO WORK and how your work is VALUED in society

Subprime Mortgage Targeting

PREDATORY LENDING PRACTICES that extract wealth from marginalized homeowners. DEEPEN RACIAL WEALTH GAP. -HIGH INTEREST RATES to those who can’t afford it most. (Shapiro - Toxic inequality)

Redlining

MAPPING that DETERMINES LENDING PRACTICES based on RACE. Kept people OUT OF WHITE NEIGHBORHOODS—example from the video on housing discrimination: father tricked realtor by having a white family see the house, but he signed the docs.

Restrictive covenants

DEEDS BARRED sale, lease, or occupation of property to PARTICULAR RACES. Was completly LEGAL around LA (“White Spots” reading)

Racial steering

Realtors practice directing buyers towards or away from neighborhoods based on race. Ex: video on man’s family realtor EXCLUSIVLY showed dad homes in black areas

Eminent domain

Gov’t can SIEZE PRIVATE PROPERTY for public use. USED TO DISPLACE communities of color. Ex: Chavez Ravine for DODGER STATIUM or Boyle Heights. (“Global Movements to Urban Aparthei” Sanchez)

Urban renewal

SLUM CLEARANCE programs that REDEVELOP neighborhoods, often DISPLACING MINORITY RESIDENTS. (Chavez Ravine)

Gentrification

WEALTHIER people MOVING into LESS WEALTHY URBAN neighborhoods. RENOVATING it, and ATTRACTING people in a higher price range. This DISPLACES the original inhabitants. Ex: USC students displacing family for new student housing.

Priced Out

The DISPLACEMENT or FORCED REMOVAL of residents who CAN’T AFFORD their rapidly increased housing costs. Must SETTLE for LESS-DESIRABLE options VIDEO: Well-off family kicked out of apartment

Freeway routing as displacement

Infrastructure to remove, contain, or marginalize specific communities. EX: highways splitting up BOYLE Heights “Spaghetti” VIDEO

Boosterism

CITY PROMOTIONS and MYTHMAKING that SANITIZES city history and ERASES labor and racialized experiences for Tourism/Economic Reputation. PICTURES from class

Chinese Exclusion Act

Federal law that BARRED CHINESE LABORORS from IMMIGRATING and PREVENTED NATURALIZATION of Chinese residents 1882. Seen as a THREAT. (Violence against Chinese video)

Geary Act

EXTENDED exclusion and REQUIRED Chinese residents to CARRY FORM OF RESIDENCE or Punishment. 1892

Chinese Massacre of 1871

Anti‑Chinese VIOLENCE IN Los Angeles where WHITE MOBS attacked and killed Chinese residents. Around 20 men and boys DIED.

Chavez Ravine

Eminent Domain case where a Hispanic American community was displaced for Public Urban Renewal Project. BULLDOZED. Early ‘50s

Bruce’s Beach

A case of racially motivated EMINENT DOMAIN seizure. Later addressed through REPARATION. Would have been millionaires. DOCUMENTARY

Owens Valley aqueduct

WATER SEIZURE project that REDIRECTED RESOURCES from RURAL communities and INDIGENOUS groups to Los Angeles. Relates to SETTLER COLONIALISM. Documentary in class

William Mulholland

Engineer for LA water projects that caused the ENVIRONMENTAL DISPOSSESSION (forcibly moving people) and UNEQUAL RESOURCE allocation for his OWN FINANCIAL GAIN. -Documentary

Tongva

INDIGENOUS people of the Los Angeles BASIN subject to SETTLER COLONIALISM, BAPTISM, and MISSIONS by SPANISH. Hernández – “An Eliminatory Option”

Californios

Spanish and Mexican LAND-HOLDING ELITES, High in CASTA. Status was “othered” under American colonization. Hernández – “An Eliminatory Option”

Pio Pico

A prominent CALIFORNIO LEADER whose MIXED heritage and LANDHOLDING illustrate complex CASTA HEIRARCHY. He MOVED UP in Casta through assimilation and land owning/power. Hernandez “An Eliminatory Option”

Toypurina

TONGVA LEADER who ORGANIZED RESISTANCE against Spanish mission oppression. Example of standing up against violence and carceral punishment used for erasure. Hernández – “An Eliminatory Option”

Boyle Heights

A historically MULTICULTURAL Los Angeles neighborhood known for LABOR ACTIVISM and cross‑ethnic SOLIDARITY. Example for FLUID RACIAL FORMATION: It was multicultural; in the documentary, people said they were very tolerant of diversity.

Dunbar Hotel

A CULTURAL and ECONOMIC hub for Black Los Angeles and an example of BLACK URBAN INSTITUTION

No Más Bebés

Case and film documenting COERCED STERILIZATION of Latina women, who didn’t speak English illustrating INTERSECTIONALITY. RACIAL FORMATION pushed a racial category where Hispanic women didn’t need to be medically respected, because of the application of RACIAL MEANING that Hispanic women would overly fertile and irresponsible.

Green Book

A guidebook that enabled safer travel and mobility for Black Americans by listing services and safe venues.

Racial project in practice

A POLICY or event that re‑signifies race and REDISTRIBUTES RESOURCES:

-Owen Valley Aquaduct

-Chauvez Ravine

- Redlining and Housing Covenant

-MASS INCARCERATION

-Boyle Heights Highway

-Castas System

- No Más Bebés Sterilization