This is a MCK-
hosted group; if you are not a Motor City Kossack, you are still welcome to jump in and join us!
This week's readings: Chapter 3 "The Coffin of Peace": The Containment of Public Housing, as well as a recap of Part One: Arsenal
My overall reaction to this week's reading was a rather bleak "the more things change, the more they stay the same" feeling. As Sugrue detailed some of the controversies and decisions regarding the development of public housing, many of the quotes and arguments made at the time sounded like those still used and heard today. It occurred to me that I could easily (if I had more time) make a list of quotes used by Sugrue, mix in quotes from today, and very few of us would be able to tell which era was which. Some examples from the book which stood out to me:
"John Watson stated succinctly, 'It looks as if, we the white people are being discriminated against. Let the colored people make their own district, as we had to.'"
(p. 79 of my edition)
"...'Public housing and housing for Negroes is synonymous or nearly so in the minds of many people. This is bad for public housing and bad for Negroes. Many people are concerned about government interference of all kinds. This tends to create a separation in their minds between themselves and "the government."'...'"
(p. 81 of my edition)
"Floyd McGriff, editor and publisher of a chain of neighborhood newspapers on the Northwest Side...warned that multi-family homes would 'threaten the local areas with additional blight,' and blamed 'fringe disruptionists, the political crack-pots, and the socialist double-domes' who 'injected racial issues' into the housing debates."
(p. 82 of my edition)
This overall sense of white supremacy, anti-government feelings and rhetoric, and the prevalence of psychological projection are arguably earmarks of discourse today...remind me again what year it is? As if to reinforce my disorientation, this article was published in The Guardian yesterday: Detroiters Stay Out
This week's observations/questions: Sugrue posits that the New Deal promise to assist the neediest citizens was in constant tension with the support of expansion of opportunities for the middle and working class. How do we see this tension in the politics of today?
Sugrue argues that the New Deal deference to localism with regard to the implementation of federal public housing policies created an untenable and unforeseen circumstance when politicians were unwilling to work against the vocal, white population. Has this changed at all in the reimagining of Detroit?
Sugrue contrasts the support for public housing in Detroit (limited) to New York and Chicago (more broad-based) and suggests the lack of a machine politics in Detroit played a role. Why do you think Detroit never developed machine politics?
As you think about Part One: Arsenal as a whole, what points, observations, arguments made by Sugrue stand out the most to you?
Next week: Part Two: Rust - Chapters 4 and 5, "The Meanest and Dirtiest Jobs" and "The Damning Mark of False Prosperities"