COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

them. And the middle-class don’t usually participate in agendas for change unless the
changes are in their interest and benefit them. It is in the interest of the middle-class to
solve problems and they thus will reach out to solve community issues after the social
issues are well noticed.
The middle-class has much political power in working to revitalize low-income
communities, and there is a widespread belief that low-income neighborhoods will be
improved through beautification projects and increased economic development. But,
The rubric of ‘revitalization’ is overtly falsifying. It’s a word
whose positive connotations reflect nothing other than ‘the sort of
middle-class ethnocentrism that views the replacement of lowstatus
groups by middle-class groups as beneficial. The word
‘revitalization’ conceals the very existence of the inhabitants
already living in the dilapidated neighborhoods that are targeted
for renovation. [Deutsche 1986:69]
Revitalization projects have considerable political appeal in local communities and get a
steady flow of grants for such projects. This clearly indicates that the local government is
receptive to pressures from community-based organizations for home improvement loans,
code enforcement activities, beautification projects, and street improvements.
Additionally, through the involvement that middle-class neighborhood residents have in
planning and implementing neighborhood revitalization projects, the local government
comes to be viewed as a partner, not as an adversary by them.
Wacquant and Wilson (1989:15) explain that, for now, not only are ghetto
residents, as before, dependent on the will and decisions of outside forces that rule the
field of power—the mostly white dominant class, corporations, realtors, politicians, and
welfare agencies—they have no control over and are forced to rely on services and
127