Cornell University Press The Racial Politics of Division: Interethnic Struggles for Legitimacy in Multicultural Miami

The Racial Politics of Division deconstructs antagonistic discourses that circulated in local Miami media between African Americans, "white" Cubans, and "black" Cubans during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift and the 1994 Balsero Crisis. Monika Gosin challenges exclusionary arguments pitting these groups against one another and depicts instead the nuanced ways in which identities have been constructed, negotiated, rejected, and reclaimed in the context of Miami's historical multiethnic tensions. Focusing on ideas of "legitimacy," Gosin argues that dominant race-making ideologies of the white establishment regarding "worthy citizenship" and national belonging shape inter-minority conflict as groups negotiate their precarious positioning within the nation. Rejecting oversimplified and divisive racial politics, The Racial Politics of Division portrays the lived experiences of African Americans, white Cubans, and Afro-Cubans as disrupters in the binary frames of worth-citizenship narratives. Foregrounding the oft-neglected voices of Afro-Cubans, Gosin posits new narratives regarding racial positioning and notions of solidarity in Miami. By looking back to interethnic conflict that foreshadowed current demographic and social trends, she provides us with lessons for current debates surrounding immigration, interethnic relations, and national belonging. Gosin also shows us that despite these new demographic realities, white racial power continues to reproduce itself by requiring complicity of racialized groups in exchange for a tenuous claim on US citizenship. Review "Monika Gosin is ahead of the curve in delving into one of the most critical and popular fields in humanities―the ethnic and racial relations between non-white groups. This book looks to the future as much as it sociologically analyzes the past." Author: Ibram Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of  Stamped from the Beginning "The Politics of Division is a crucial addition to the growing body of scholarship on Miami. Gosin's analysis of interethnic relations moves beyond the black/white binary to provide an insightful and multi-layered account of the city's complex racial landscape." Author: Albert Sergio Laguna, Yale University, author of  Diversión About the Author Monika Gosin is Assistant Professor at the College of William and Mary.