�ś O U R F U T U R E . . . R I G H T H E R E , R I G H T N O W ! ”

tion, the twenty- and thirty-somethings who were generally college

educated and working professionals. He also ran strong among the

city’s growing Latino population, a number of immigrant commu-

nities from places as diverse as Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the Domini-can Republic. Realizing the demographic shifts that were remapping

the city, Booker refined his Spanish-language skills as a way to com-municate more eĆłectively with a constituency that in 2002 repre-

sented nearly a third of the city’s population.

The Newark contest, like others around the nation, was an indica-

tion of just how dramatically the theater of urban politics was chang-ing. The customary battle lines, white versus black, were no longer viable. Newark, like urban America as a whole, was in flux and that necessitated a shift in political philosophy and policy.

The contest between James and Booker was marked by contradic-

tion as well as controversy. It was more than a little strange that James attacked Booker for possessing the very things�"a highly educated

and middle class pedigree�"he presumably fought for blacks to have

access to. Even Booker acknowledged that his achievements�"Stan-

ford graduate, Oxford Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law�"owed a huge

debt to the eĆłorts of James’s generation.

When all of the votes were tallied, James prevailed with 53 percent versus 47 percent for his younger opponent. Washington Post writer Dale RussakoĆł, discussing the historic clash embodied in the Newark mayoral race wrote, �śThe question embedded in Booker’s candidacy

is here to stay, as it is nationally: What defines urban leaders in a post-riot, post-movement generation?” Even though he lost, Booker’s ability to mount a serious campaign gave evidence that the po-

litical waters in urban America were shifting course. But like the sea shifts that transformed urban pop culture, the oncoming shifts in

urban politics were not greeted favorably. And while the future direc-tion of urban politics was uncertain, one fact was relatively certain: Whatever course they took would be guided, in large measure, by

generation hip hop.

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