Current discussions on demographic changes in the United States tend to focus, justifiably, on the seismic growth of the Latino population and the social, economic, and political consequences of their heightened presence in society. However, as Candis Watts Smith and Christina M. Greer highlight in their new edited volume, Black Politics in Transition: Immigration, Suburbanization and Gentrification, transformations in the ethnic composition and migratory patterns of the black population in the United States have been occurring simultaneously. These shifts portend significant changes in the participatory strategies and political preferences of the black community. Smith and Greer's edited volume offers a thoughtfully curated collection of book chapters that document these patterns in ways that stand to fundamentally alter our conceptions of black politics.

The volume is separated into four sections. The first section focuses on immigration from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America with its consequences for the ethnic composition of the black population in the United States, and on how these diverse black immigrant communities differ politically. Sharon Austin Wright's chapter captures the characteristics of both native and foreign-born blacks in New York City and the nature of their political relationships, particularly their perceptions of intra-racial competition as well as the potential for political collaboration. Cory Charles Gooding's chapter concentrates on Afro-Caribbeans' application of ethnic respectability politics, which constitute efforts to distance themselves from native-born blacks as a way of avoiding the consequences of negative black stereotypes often associated with African Americans. The chapter's examination of ethnic respectability offers a complementary extension of Greer's (Reference Greer2013) conception of elevated minority status. Additionally, Gooding reveals that the practice of ethnic respectability politics is more effective within a context like New York City where the Afro-Caribbean community is larger and more visible than in other urban spaces like Los Angeles.

The second section examines how black politics functions within the context of majority–minority cities. In many cases, the urban policy agendas in cities where blacks reside are no longer dominated by the interests of native-born blacks. Instead, the black community has to share the political stage with other ethnic groups, particularly Latinos. For example, Niambi Carter's chapter examines black opinion surrounding sanctuary cities. She discovers that black respondents in Washington D.C. endorse the city's status as a sanctuary city more than their white counterparts despite concerns that blacks may face heightened economic and political competition from the growing Latino population. The other chapter in this section examines blacks' political incorporation in Durham, NC. Andrea Benjamin discovers that while blacks in Durham have achieved descriptive representation, they enjoy limited electoral and policy incorporation.

Perhaps the most compelling section of the volume concentrates on spatial trends toward greater suburbanization among black citizens. Despite the canard that most blacks reside in the inner-cities, census evidence reveals that after decades of exiting center cities, most blacks now live in the suburbs. With their migration into multiracial neighborhoods and the increasing economic mobility of the black population, some researchers have examined whether racial solidarity among blacks can be sustained (Bledsoe et al. Reference Bledsoe, Welch, Sigelman and Combs1995; Wilson Reference Wilson1978). The chapters from Ernest B. McGowen III and Reuel R. Rogers reach different conclusions on this point. The conceptual foundation of McGowen's chapter is that, while some may associate suburbanization with social and political moderation, suburbanization may drive greater political progressivism by heightening the saliency of blacks' racial identity and stronger perceptions of racial discrimination. Indeed, his evidence reveals that black residents in low-black density areas tend to support pro-black economic and political behavior as well as redistributive policies more than those living in higher black density areas. On the other hand, Rogers contends that increased suburbanization has contributed to the decline of the black counterpublic, which the author describes as a network of black institutions such as black churches and civic organizations created to combat blacks' exclusion from mainstream civil society. In addition to allowing blacks greater autonomy, the counterpublic played a critical role in instilling a uniformity of social and political opinion among blacks. Accordingly, he discovers suburban blacks are more likely to perceive racial fairness and equality than their urban counterparts. An examination of the model specifications used in the two chapters suggests the varied results may be a function of their differing measures of suburbanization. However, they offer fertile ground for further theorizing and empirical testing.

The final section of the volume addresses issues related to gentrification and the reverse Great Migration, the contemporary movement of black populations, from northeastern and midwestern cities to which they fled to during the Jim Crow era, back to urban spaces in the southeast. Jessica Lynn Stewart offers a fascinating spatial analysis of black migratory patterns, driven by the hypothesis that prospective areas for gentrification are shaped by the concentration of black homeowners, affordable housing options and changes in black median household income. Ultimately, she concludes that all of these factors leave blacks living in the northeast and Midwest more vulnerable to gentrification than blacks living in the southeast or west. The second contribution in this section concentrates on the effects of multiracial neighborhoods on blacks' residential experiences. Sarah Mayorga-Gallo discovers that while black residents of multiracial neighborhoods forge friendship networks, albeit mostly with other black residents, they also tend to report more social isolation and experiences of being policed by their non-black neighbors.

In closing, Black Politics in Transition offers a sweeping examination of the current landscape of black politics in the United States. This volume will serve as a critical starting-point for reexamining the conceptual paradigms that have dominated the literature for several years. Indeed, given the shifting ethnic composition and migratory patterns of the black community, this volume should encourage students of black politics to reconsider the participatory patterns and policy preferences that stand to define the future of black politics.