In the past few years, the relationship has not necessarily been that good. There was conflict that got pretty heated a few years back, and included an incident that brought everything to a head in which two Yemenese men killed an African American man in front of his step-daughter in a fight at a Yemeni owned gas station. That resulted in protests and boycotts against the gas station, and, finally, in a joint meeting between leaders of the Arab community in Dearborn, and Black leaders (mainly religious) from Detroit. To be honest, I don't fully recall the outcome. But, this incident was so heated because it was sort of the culmination of several years of "problems". For example, for years the complaint of many people in the poorer sections of Detroit is that Arab immigrants come to the inner city and open up stores. Many people here do not have the capital to start small businesses, cannot get loans, etc., and then Arab owned stores start to multiply. In the midts of this starts the rumor that iraqi Chaldeans (who own most of the stores here) do not have to pay taxes for 7 years (I checked that out and could not confirm it long ago). Poor African Americans (and others, but African Americans are the vast majority in the city, as everyone knows) get pissed off at the Arab store owners because they say that the store owners take money out of the community because they don't live there and do not therefore reinvest the money; they say that they get treated like criminals in the stores and are constantly watched and that the owners are really rude to them; and that, because the stores are in the inner city, they jack up the prices, don't provide quality food, and don't bother to fix up the stores to look better. The Arab owners then say that the customers frequently rob the stores, loiter and scare away customers, damage the property, live on welfare, and show no respect to the owners. I have heard this from both sides on a few occasions because I ask people, and because I shop in the stores. There was an interesting study that I read a few years ago about similar issues between African American communities and Korean store owners in Ohio. It had several of the same dynamics.
I also worked at an Arab community center in Dearborn a few years ago and learned that there were serious, physical conflicts happening at local high schools between Yemeni students and African American students - so much so that, again, community leaders had to intervene to deal with the underlying issues.
Since the War on Terror began, people have been trying to work together in the Arab and Black communities, and had several meetings about how they should/could support one another. At the very first teach-in that we organized after 9/11, there was a huge discussion between some of the Arab leaders and several African American high school students. The students were charging that the Arabs had never cared about the fact that they were being racially profiled, so why should they now care about what is happening to Arab immigrants? As well, that extended into the issue of who has access to what, and why can immigrants come and get benefits that African Americans cannot. Black religious leaders in Detroit are getting really involved in anti-war activities and recently had an inner-faith religious program with Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc. I didn't go, but 3,000 people did.
I hope I haven’t exaggerated the “conflict” between the two communities, but I think that such conflicts between oppressed groups are manifestations of other issues, and that the economic instability of the city is a major factor. I would like to hear what Charles has to say on this too. As well, I do not meant to imply that these conflicts that I commented about can be generalized throughout the city. I think it is quite a serious question, though, and it is a challenging question. Students at Wayne State University are taking it seriously, and several Arab and Muslim students are creating alliances with Black student groups and are having great success.
One last note - I live and work in Mexicantown and spend a lot of time talking to Arab and Latino store owners about the war. I have yet to meet one who is pro-war, and everyone comments quite positively on my anti-war button. I even get free coffee :)
jessica
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