Abstract
Detroit, Michigan, ever emblematic of what is both good (as the quintessential city “big capitalism” built) and bad (racial strife and poverty) about American cities, on June 14, 2013, finally conceded that it could no longer deal with its fiscal stress and filed for the biggest municipal bankruptcy ever. It is not clear if this will be allowed to happen as the city, its workers, its creditors, and its citizens confront Kevin Orr, the fiscal manager appointed by Governor Rick Snyder on March 14, 2013. The appointment and subsequent filing once again brought into sharp relief the racial and economic tensions in the city, and in Detroit, written by seasoned scholars of the city, we can find the roots and causes that brought Detroit to this brink.
The book's look and feel is that of a textbook, and for many this will be both its strength and its weakness. In thirteen chapters the authors excavate the city's history by focusing, as the title promises, on the nature, cause, and impact of deeply felt racial divides in the city. Race, we would come to learn, is the lens through which everything should be examined. Many accounts start with Detroit's history of the automobile industry, the struggles to form unions, the salaries that supported a vibrant middle class in the city and around the region, and the wealth that created wonderful neighborhoods and world class cultural icons like its museum, opera, and symphony. Instead, as the title promises, the first four chapters provide the reader with an understanding of the strife that led up to the civil disorders (riots to some, rebellion to others) in the 1967 riots.
Reminiscent of the HBO drama The Wire, which systematically examined the role of the various institutions in Baltimore's impoverished community, the chapters in turn expound upon the racial divides leading up to 1967, the tensions between the Black community and the police, the corrosive effects of a battle over school desegregation and decline, and the problems of employment discrimination. In the end, the racial practices of the police, the unequal access to quality education, and the spatial mismatch and persistent unemployment among the city's Black residents all created the powder keg that exploded on July 23, 1967. As the authors state at the outset, “[a] generation of Blacks and whites experienced the riot in dramatically different ways, creating sometimes historically conflicting narratives” (p. 2). In these four chapters we get to see how and why these conflicting narratives emerge, and the promise is that if we pay attention we will find the roots of the current state of affairs of a once proud and thriving city.
In keeping with the theme of this book the authors cover the rise of Black political power and the deteriorating relationships between the City of Detroit and its surrounding counties (a problem that can be seen informing Detroit's limitations, for example little regional mass transit, to this day). What might have been instructive would have been some direct comparisons with mayors like Harold Washington of Chicago and David Dinkins of New York City to explore how race informs politics in cities with large Black communities long kept away from the halls of power. The book then devotes several chapters to the experiences and relationships of Black residents with Asian–Americans, Latinos/as, and immigrants from the Middle East. Indeed, Detroit and Dearborn have witnessed a very large increase in the number of immigrants from the Middle East to the point that one can almost get by in some communities only speaking Arabic. Similarly, Southwest Detroit has a growing and vibrant Hispanic population with residents of Mexican, Central American, and Latin American descent. Both communities are in constant competition with the Black population (Detroit remains about 85 percent African–American) over jobs and investment opportunities.
However, the book sacrifices some important developments by focusing solely on race in what might be called a narrow frame. For example, in Chapter 7, entitled “The Declining Auto Industry and Anti–Asian Racism: The Murder of Vincent Chin,” most of the attention is given over to the reasons for and reactions to the murder and its aftermath. Little is said, however, about how in the 1970s the United Auto Workers (UAW), led by Douglas Fraser, literally invited the Japanese automakers to come to the United States in the hopes of unionizing workers. Competition from Japan was blamed for the mismanagement and decline of U.S. Auto, and hence jobs in Detroit. This fueled anti–Asian sentiments to the point that Japanese cars dared not park in the lot of the UAW headquarters known as Solidarity House (the irony now is that “buy American” is perhaps misleading as Japanese producers are well established in the United States while many U.S. brands are assembled with parts made abroad). The Asian community is very small while the decline of the auto industry has had a serious impact on intergenerational poverty. Efforts made by the UAW to increase the numbers of Black workers in their ranks were reversed as these workers, last to be hired, were early victims of the decline in manufacturing in Detroit. What had in the past been avenues for children of white workers to get Big Three jobs and live the American Dream no longer was available to Black workers and their children.
The book closes with a chapter on drugs and crime, another on measures of discrimination in housing and employment, before elaborating on how Detroit's residents are working to build coalitions in order to try to rebuild a city torn apart by its racial history (using the 1967 riots as its touchstone). Speculating, the authors posit several scenarios for the future of Detroit, though each seems more about programs that can alleviate many of Detroit's ills rather than proposing significant changes to its political economy. In the end, I would recommend this book for anyone who wishes to understand the situation in Detroit today. However, the format, layout of topics, and its substance reads more like a textbook for an advanced undergraduate level urban sociology class with a section on Detroit. What is lacking is any serious theoretical engagement as it goes through a standard set of topics, albeit in an informative and interesting manner.