Summary Of Race And Inequality In Detroit By Thomas Sugrue
Thomas J. Sugrue. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. In his 1996 monograph entitled The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, Thomas J. Sugrue explores the factors which led gradually to the “urban crisis” in Detroit, arguing that, “It is only through the complex and interwoven histories of race, residence, and work in the postwar era that the state of today’s cities and their impoverished residents can be fully understood and confronted,” (Sugrue, 5). Sugrue proposes that it is not the riot of 1967 which triggered the urban crisis, but rather the culmination of these issues. Sugrue’s work is divided into three parts: “Arsenal”, “Rust”, and “Fire”. The first section, abbreviated …show more content…
Particularly in retail, the employees were the face of the business - the ones with whom the customers interacted. As a result of this,
The employment of black salespeople… would undermine the thoroughly bourgeois atmosphere of high-end retail shopping… [and] store owners sometimes acted on their fears that black employees would steal from the cash register or pilfer store merchandise. (Sugrue,
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Whites took “the wretched conditions” of Paradise Valley as “the fault of irresponsible blacks, not greedy landlords or neglectful city officials,” and because housing was a “powerful symbol of ‘making it’”, whites in Detroit saw this plight as “personal failure and family breakdown,” (Sugrue, 216-217). As a result of the social changes which emerged during the postwar period, Sugrue explains that “Detroit was… torn by cataclysmic violence…” (Sugrue, 260). Sugrue’s claim that, rather than taking the riot of 1967 as the catalyst for urban crisis in Detroit, one must understand a number of factors which preceded the riot in order to understand this issue, is well-defended by numerous anecdotes detailing the the history of Detroit since the postwar period. His claim and information are backed by a wide variety of sources, including books, academic papers and journals, newspaper articles (from a number of sources including the Dearborn Press, the Detroit News, and the Michigan Chronicle), and
Summary Of Detroit By Thomas Sugrue
453 Words | 2 PagesIn the Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas Sugrue he talks about, how the poorly planned city lead to massive poverty and inequality amongst the people in Detroit. Mr.Sugrue shows us how Detroit desperately depended on the automotive company Chrysler. Mr.Sugrue in a way shows is how Detroit parallels the south of America with its dependency on slaver and once slaver ended or in this case Chrysler left Detroit, there was no longer a sustainable economy. Mr. Sugrue explains how housing had become a major problem for “organized political activity in the 1940s, where Detroiters, black and white, fought a battle that would define Detroit politics for decades to follow" (55).
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663 Words | 3 PagesPrécis 1- The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit Thomas J. Sugrue’s novel, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, presents a meticulously detailed and insightful perspective of Detroit’s modern urban crisis and how it is affiliated with post-industrial decline and issues of race. Separated into three sections, the novel argues how white flight and de-industrialization were not only results of “one of the most brutal riots in American history” but also instigators of it as well (Sugrue 259). This riot transformed Detroit as a city, hindering its urban development for decades to come. Throughout the first section of the novel, Sugrue introduces the racial, economic, and political
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