In this article, I examine the contested and racially coded cultural politics of creating mixed-income schools in mixed-income communities. Policymakers claim deconcentrating low-income people will reduce poverty and improve education. However, based on activist research in Chicago, I argue these policies are grounded in "culture of poverty" theories that pathologize Black urban space. They legitimate displacement and gentrification and further the neoliberal urban agenda while negating that urban communities of color and their schools are spaces of community.