ABSTRACT
ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING INVOLVES AT LEAST TWO CONTRADICTORY PROCESSES. First, the dominant global and national processes of restructuring attempt to centralize power by marginalizing and dislocating communities of color. Part of this process involves providing ideological justification for the extension of “benign,” “modernizing” influences to “traditional” or “alien” communities. The development of racialized images is central to the process of controlling communities (Mullings 1994). Communities of color also bear the costs of economic restructuring because significant numbers of people are forced to move in search of new economic opportunities. In addition, many are forced to emigrate for espousing political perspectives that are in opposition to the economic (and political) restructuring of their home country. The second contradictory process, then, follows from the first. Since people of color often end up living with others like themselves, in culturally and/or residentially segregated spaces, the presence of “alien insiders” in the community creates a new impetus for resistance and organizing in the community.1 The meaning of the community, the nature of its boundaries, and the symbols that provide a sense of emotional ties are often reinterpreted by communities to challenge the processes of race/gender oppression and to foster group survival and growth. While such community activism rarely results in outright victories, traces of community resistance survive. These alternative repertoires are available for use in other times and places by other marginalized communities.
