ABSTRACT
William J. Wilson has forcefully argued that race-focused political movements and policies to improve the lives of poor people of colour are misplaced. Race-focused explanations of black and Hispanic poverty divert attention from the structural changes in the United States economy that account primarily for the unemployment and social isolation experienced by rapidly growing numbers of inner city Americans. This chapter suggests that the context of economic interdependence provides an important basis for the necessity of groups who define each other as different to maintain a single polity, both in oppositional social movements of civil society or in legislative and other governmental institutions. The way differently identifying groups understand themselves and each other, as well as how their group specific needs and interests intersect with policies and institutions of political decision-making must also be an explicit part of political discourse.
