TIMES OF CRISIS: WHO TO BLAME?

In the years leading up to the summer of 1982, Detroit was a city in crisis. Beginning with the oil crises in the 1970s, the manufacturing sector of America in general and in the industrial Midwest were hit with massive, prolonged layoffs that set hundreds of thousands of workers into economic disaster at a time when politicians from the White House down were intent on dismantling society’s “safety net.” The auto industry in particular had collapsed and long lines of despair snaked around unemployment offices, union halls, welfare offices and soup kitchens. More than 100,000 workers in Detroit alone were laid off with no prospects for work in the future. Men and women lost homes, cars, recreational vehicles, summer cottages and possessions accumulated over a lifetime of hard work in a once-thriving industry. Pundits labeled them as the “new poor,” ostensibly to distinguish formerly working people, largely white, from the “old” endemic poor who presumably were incapable or unwilling to work. For many of these newly impoverished people, gloom turned to anger as they searched for someone or something to blame for their misery. At first, the companies blamed the workers for incompetence and malaise, for wanting too much in exchange for too little effort. The workers, in turn, pointed to decrepit factories and machines that hadn’t been upgraded since World War II, and profits that had been squandered and not reinvested in plants and people. The government was faulted for not doing enough to prevent or fix the economic catastrophe. Before long, however, they all found a common enemy to blame: the Japanese. While Detroit’s corporate and political leadership had once scoffed at the idea of fuel-efficient cars in anticipation of oil shortages, automakers in Japan and Germany were busily meeting the demand for inexpensive fuel misers. In 1978, a new oil embargo killed the market for the heavy, eight-cylinder dinosaurs made in Detroit, precipitating the massive layoffs and a crisis throughout the industrial Midwest. The foreign auto imports were everything the gas-guzzlers were not—cheap to buy, cheap to run, well-made and dependable. They were easy for Detroit automakers and autoworkers to hate.

Anything Japanese, or presumed to be Japanese, became a potential target. People who looked German were spared in spite of the fuel-efficient German cars; racism only works when people can be portrayed as different. Unions sponsored sledge-hammer events giving frustrated workers a chance to smash Japanese cars for a dollar a swing. Japanese cars were vandalized and their drivers were shot at on the freeways. On TV, radio, and street corners, anti-Japanese slurs were commonplace. UAW bumper stickers declared: “Datsun, Honda, Toyota—Pearl Harbor” and “Real Americans buy American.” Through the metaphor of war, the frustration and misery of the unemployed were channeled into patriotic fervor. Eager to exploit the flag-waving theme, leaders and community members alike leaned in to racially-charged innuendo. Politicians like Congressman John Dingell (D-MI), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, railed against “those little yellow people.” Lee Iacocca, chair of the failing Chrysler Corporation and one-time presidential candidate, blithely suggested dropping nuclear bombs on Japan. It felt dangerous to have an Asian face. Asian American employees of auto companies were warned not to go onto the factory floor, told that angry workers might hurt them because they “looked Japanese.” Even in California, home to long-established Asian American communities, a third-generation Japanese American television reporter in San Jose was threatened by an autoworker who pulled a knife and yelled, “I don’t likee Jap food… I only like American food.”

Asian Americans, the supposed “good minority,” are not believed to experience racism—even in the face of anti-Asian hate

Nor was the ire reserved only for Japan. In the 1980s, the US economic powerhouse, so dominant in the post-World War II decades, began to falter; the US share of global production dropped from 34% in 1950 to 23% in 1980. As America stalled, the economies of the Pacific Rim boomed, particularly those of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. The rising anger towards Japan and other Asian places unfamiliar to most Americans was an ominous reminder of dangerous times past. The ugly pattern of anti-Asian prejudice was re-emerging: Asians and Asian Americans were being blamed and scapegoated, once again, for broader economic problems, with frustrated American workers turning to violence. The ugly mood harkened to times and events past: » In the 1800s, Chinese laborers were attacked repeatedly as the “Yellow Peril;” » The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; » The driving out and ethnic cleansing of

Asians from the American West; » Anti-miscegenation laws; » Myriad ordinances that forbade Asians from owning property, testifying in court or voting; » 120,000 Japanese Americans rounded up and imprisoned during World War II by Presidential executive order. These and other governmental actions “legitimized” anti-Asian scapegoating. Even the prospect of peace in Eastern Europe in the 1980s was attributed to anti-Japanese prejudice—a survey by The New York Times suggested that glasnost and the lessened threat of the Soviet bloc was responsible for some portion of the rise in anti-Japanese hostility. In addition, the Asian American population was growing rapidly, thanks to the changes from the Immigration Act of 1965. In the two decades after 1960s, the Asian American population more than quadrupled. As the fastest growing racial minority in the United States, this remarkable growth led to increased diversity. Vibrant new groups of Asian-Americans were emerging—Koreans, Filipinos, Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Laotians, Thais, Cambodians, Pakistanis, Indonesians, Hmong, Samoans, Tongans and others. Asians were visibly doing more and different kinds of work—as lawyers, journalists, educators and business leaders, and in growing numbers as Asian scientists and engineers, many of whom were permitted to enter the US because of their expertise and expected value to America. The racist myth of the “model minority” became more firmly rooted, perpetuating the wrongful notion that all Asians are rich and highly educated—a myth that obscures the fact that many Asian Americans live in poverty, with all of the many problems that accompany being poor, minority immigrants. The myth of one monolithic population that is genetically coded to succeed dehumanizes Asian people and furthers the “othering” that can pave the way

for hate and violence. This is often ignored by the media, who would rather perpetuate the false image of Asians as the high achieving “good minority.” This dangerous stereotype of the rich, successful Asian has fueled resentment from other people of color and has contributed to the tension between African Americans and Asian Americans. The greater numbers of Asian Americans has also garnered the attention of skinheads, neo-Nazis, Aryan survivalists and assorted other hatemongers and racists. Hate crimes and hate groups experienced a rebirth in the 1980s, when the Reagan-Bush team dismantled civil rights legislation and regulations, allowing even the remaining protections to go unenforced. As a result, Asian Americans, along with other people of color, gays and lesbians, Jews, and women have suffered. The persistent images are of Asians Americans as either the enemy alien invader or the quiet, compliant “good” minority. Both myths, racist at their core, have the same result: near invisibility of a community that is viewed as insignificant and can be ignored, or they have no problems and won’t complain in any case. Asian Americans, supposedly the “good model minority,” are not believed to experience discrimination or racism—even in the face of anti-Asian hate. The denial by the mass media, leaders, influencers and the like only further renders Asian Americans invisible and disregarded on matters of race, racism, discrimination and the major issues facing America. One need only look at the present-day frightening wave of anti-Asian hate events to find evidence of such attitudes and how harmful they are. » How did race and racism affect people in Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s? » After reading this article, how would you describe the “Yellow Peril” and

“Model Minority” myth to others?

How do these racial stereotypes affect people today? » When you look at the news today, are there products or services being targeted for what they offer and where they originate from? What similarities and differences do you see when you compare Detroit auto-industry history and today’s news? » What are the connections between industry (or enterprise), race and racism? Are there similar stories, such as this one about Asian Americans and the American automotive industry, from other eras of American or international industry histories?