Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia Fighting for a Foothold argues that Black middle-class counties subsidize White middle-class counties’ tax revenue generation due to the unique constraints Black jurisdictions face—the cumulative effects of anti-Black racism, raced and classed flows of people and capital into local jurisdictions, and shared authority across levels of government that fails to account for Black jurisdictions’ historical and ongoing disadvantages.
Angela Simms is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. She examines the political economy of United States metropolitan areas through the lens of suburban Black middle-class jurisdictions’ capacity to garner sufficient tax revenue for maintaining high-quality public goods and services. On February 24, 2026, she will publish the book Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia, through the Russell Sage Foundation. She has also published articles related to local government financial capacity, including “Fiscal Fragility in Black Middle-Class Suburbia and Consequences for K-12 Public Schools and Other Public Services,” in The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences (2023); and “COVID-19, Black Jurisdictions, and Budget Constraints: How Fiscal Footing Shapes Fighting the Virus,” in Racial and Ethnic Studies (2021). Angela serves as a co-chair of Columbia Population Research Center’s Working Group on Urbanism and Neighborhoods. She is also on the editorial board of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity Journal. During the 2023-2024 academic year, Angela was a Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar.
