The attitudinal effects of minority incorporation: Examining the racial dimensions of trust in urban America. Urban Affairs Review 42:629–58

Although trust in government has been declining for all Americans, Black Americans continue to be significantly less trusting than their White coun-terparts. Scholars have typically relied on the political reality model to explain this gap, arguing that lower trust among Blacks stems from their exclusion from power. Given contemporary gains in Black office holding, we revisit this question in the context of urban politics. Based on a sample of 104 municipalities we find that Black descriptive representation has very limited direct effects on trust, but appears to affect the distribution of policing poli-cies across cities, and that substantive police policies increase Black and White Americans ’ trust in local police. Overall, our findings extend conven-tional conceptualizations of substantive benefits while raising questions about the symbolic value of Black political representation