The following analysis is based on the emergent conviction that due to the presence of systemic racism, all governing regimes are racial regimes and so do not respond to racially subordinate groups in the same way they have historically responded to white ethnics. As a result, ethnoracially marginalized groups have had to rely on community activism to contest marginalization to an extent not experienced by their white ethnic predecessors. Yet the ability of such community groups to resist oppression is limited. Furthermore, and unlike in the past, ethnoracially marginalized groups now confront a "post-racial colorblind" society that delegitimizes group specific articulations of interest as inegalitarian race thinking. In doing so, the politics of "race-neutrality" perpetuates the status quo of white skin privilege. The question explored here is whether "race-neutrality" can help to create more meaningful spaces of belonging for ethnoracially disadvantaged groups.

It is theorized that facially "race-neutral" policies aimed at promoting greater social, economic, and environmental justice may work as solutions to a group specific problem and facilitate coalition building with other progressive organizations. The ability to work in coalition allows for sustained mobilization increasing the likelihood of policy victory. Because local places provide the contexts that shape our everyday lives and vary in their resistance to the demands placed on them by ethnoracially disadvantaged groups, the study employed a case study approach to examine four instance of community based mobilization around "race-neutral" issues. The study examined mobilization around two divisive "race-neutral" issues under a resistant regime and two social justice oriented "race-neutral" issues under a comparatively porous regime.

The study finds that divisive "race-neutrality" covertly works to reinforce traditional boundaries of belonging but that social justice oriented "race-neutrality" facilitated coalition building and enabled a community-based organization to achieve policy victories on "race-neutral" issues important to substantive belonging.