THE OLD-TIMERS TALE - THE POLITICS OF NOSTALGIA ON THE WATERFRONT

In American cities nostalgic invocations of the past are frequently us ed to express dissatisfaction with the present. Ethnographers often re port these invocations at face value and tend to pay little attention to the context in which they are constructed and the purposes to which they are put. This article analyzes the meanings of the nostalgic nar ratives of the remnant working-class White population of what is now a predominantly Black and Puerto Rican area. These tales tell of a comm unity once characterized by communal solidarity and economic self-suff iciency and how it has been destroyed by ''outsiders.'' This view allo ws working-class Whites to establish the value of a stigmatized neighb orhood and helps them claim that they, not the neighborhood's non-Whit e majority, are the ''authentic'' voice of the community. In this resp ect the tales are a form of symbolic capital that can be deployed in l ocal political conflicts.