Introduction

The chapter will look forward to consider the possibilities of building cross-racial coalitions between the white working class and communities of color as the US transitions from majority white to a minority white country. In doing so, it will state that 50 years after the campaign for civil rights and the passage of landmark legislation during the 1960s, there is little evidence of formal and sustainable crossracial coalition building at the grassroots or grasstops level between the white working class and communities of color. White workingclass communities wanted to engage with communities of color but did not have the means of engaging across racial boundaries beyond a superficial everyday level. Discussions between different communities were “soft-wired” and based on fleeting exchanges in informal spaces rather than becoming “hard-wired” in a strategic plan that can create a framework for coalition building. Stakeholders were largely ambivalent and occasionally hostile toward engaging with white working-class communities to build effective cross-racial alliances. Similar to white working-class communities in relation to communities of color, stakeholders found it challenging to engage with these groups.

White working-class communities are racially diverse

Our study demonstrated that the lived experiences of white workingclass communities created opportunities to engage with communities of color in workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods. They may feel disconnected from political representatives and left behind in terms of opportunities for economic advancement, but many spoke in positive ways about being part of racially diverse families and neighborhoods.

In resident-based focus groups, discussions often touched on racial diversity within the personal lives of white working-class people. In doing so, participants complicated the notion of the uniformity of white working-class communities by referencing their own family membership. Some viewed themselves through the prism of racial hybridity, which was sometimes deployed to absolve themselves from the charge of being racist: