Now Is the Time! Detroit Black Politics and Grassroots Activism By Todd Shaw

摘要

A recent article in the International Business Times boldly proclaimed that the City of Detroit, Michigan, was poised for a comeback (Magee 2011). For those familiar with the city, Magee's words have a kind of familiarity that comes from Detroit's position as ground zero for the neoliberal economic earthquake that has shifted manufacturing overseas, gutted workers' rights, and had deleterious effects on former centers of U.S. manufacturing. Couple this economic reality with the urban uprising of 1967, White-flight, and entrenched racism in the State of Michigan and you get a sense that Detroit is a city on a perpetual comeback tour—always hoping that the city has seen the worst and can only get better from here. These social, political, and economic realities have made Detroit a tempting and rich story-field for academics from across the disciplinary spectrum.