6 Power of Personal Business for Detroit’s Asian Americans

Power of Personal Business for Detroit’s Asian Americans

Asian Americans’ identity has changed throughout recent US history. This population pushed against prejudice, racism, and the inability to demonstrate their heritage. However, like with many heritage groups, a physical place dedicated to developing a stronger community within the ethnic group acts as a crucial element for the identity and assimilation of these ethnic groups. In Michigan, Detroit, Asian Americans work to establish a place to develop their community and retain their heritage. These centers for congregation and ethnic representation help the Asian population in Detroit move from an unnoticeable group, to another recognizable ethnic group that adds to the diverse Detroit population. The power of place for ethnic groups allows acts as a response to criticism and racism and enables for a stronger, louder ethnic population.

In The Latino Heartland, Sujey Vega outlines the relationship between the Latinx population and their identity in the Midwest. Vega argues that such identity comes from cohesion and autonomy among the population. In her book, Vega demonstrates how the church works as a necessary vehicle for this strengthening of the Latinx community. Vega explains, “Whether Catholic or Protestant, church engagement and active participation in a Spanish choir or Bible study provided a sense of spiritual agency that carried over to a sense of belonging” (Vega, 77). Here, Vega outlines that through “church engagement” the Latinx community developed “agency” and “sense of belonging.” The church “providing” this change suggests that having an actual location to come together and participate in enabled the better assimilation and development of the Latinx community. Vega’s book focuses on Mexican immigrants to America, which helps emphasize the power that the Church has in the proper establishment of this ethnic group in the US.

In contrast, the Japanese population in Detroit suffered from the inability to create an established ethnic community. In Asae Shichi’s essay “From Hammered-Down Nail to Squeaky Cog: The Modern Japanese American Experience in Detroit,” Shichi explains how fish markets and sushi restaurants have become centers of Japanese representation and community cohesion. Detroit’s industry, specifically its car manufacturing, historically dominated the city’s job market and economy. As the automobile industry shifted overseas to Japan and Japanese immigrants moved to Detroit for work, the Japanese received much backlash from the current Detroit citizens, arguing that Japan and the Japanese immigrants dominated the industry and damaged Detroit’s economy and industry and swiped jobs from many industry workers in the city. Due to this discourse, prejudice against Japanese immigrants and citizens increased. This prejudice, however, often effected other Asian ethnic groups, which suggests the weak identity of the Japanese ethnic group in Detroit at the time. Shichi captures this in the following anecdote:

A young Korean student told the audience she was continually harassed because of being mistaken for a Japanese person. At a shopping mall someone had yelled at her, ‘Because of you, my family member lost a job!’ ‘What could I say,’ she told the audience, ‘Other than ‘I’m Korean, and I drive an American car?’ (Shichi, 150).

This example of prejudice against the Japanese population holds significance since the harassment was directed towards a Korean woman. This suggests that the Japanese identity in Detroit at that time remained limited to being a negatively perceived Asian group.

Shichi continues on to explain how the Japanese combated this misdirected prejudice and developed a stronger, positive presence in the city via sushi restaurants and Japanese markets. Shichi provides the example of Noble Fish, explaining how this market worked to develop stronger a stronger Japanese identity in Detroit. She writes, “The place is always crowded with local people—high school students seeking a bite of exotic food during lunch breaks, businesspeople treating their coworkers, neighborhood men who look like factory workers” (Shichi, 152). In explaining that the primary consumer base for this restaurant is such an eclectic group of non-Japanese people who want to experience Japanese cuisine, it implies that the Japanese population developed a stronger identity due to Noble Fish. Shichi furthers this point in explaining how this store also works to create a stronger sense of community for the Japanese population. She states, “The store acts as a gossip corridor for the regular Japanese customers who shop here. One is bound to run into someone one knows, since this is the only Japanese grocery store in the vicinity” (152). Because Noble Fish is “the only Japanese grocery store” in the area, it acts as a great example of how these markets are working as a center for the Japanese community to come together. Before Noble Fish opened, the Japanese community had no actual place to find one another because there was nothing truly “Japanese” in the area before.

Chinese immigrants and Americans in Detroit make up a larger portion of the Asian demographic in the city. Like the Japanese, this ethnic group experiences a similar transition to developing their identity and community in Detroit. As Vega writes, church engagement offered a “sense of belonging.” This sense of belonging was attempted to be developed for Chinese immigrants and Americans through their dedicated Chinatowns in Detroit. However, Vega suggests that active participation is a key element for this sense to develop. Therefore, the Chinese population established a better community amongst themselves after opening laundries. Chelsea Zuzindlak’s essay “Tell ‘Em You’re From Detroit: Chinese Americans in the Model City,” she includes an anecdote from a Chinese laundry worker that demonstrates the significance of the laundries for the Chinese immigrants: “for most Chinese in those days, as I say, there were not very many jobs open to them. So they had created their own job and supported themselves during that period. We were visible only because of the laundries” (Zuzindlak, 54). This laundry worker suggests that the Chinese proactive attitude in opening and operating their own laundries offers social visibility for the group. Social “visibility” implies that the Chinese population was able to present themselves to their Detroit neighbors. Furthermore, “visibility” suggests that the laundries helped connect this demographic with itself as the Chinese became a larger presence in Detroit. Zuzindlak continues this argument, explaining that once the Chinese had an established community, the various Chinatown’s popularity and success also thrived. One Chinese American explains, “That’s where we hung out after school, that’s where we played basketball, that’s where they sent us to summer camp” (54). This suggests that it is through active participation at a dedicated location, the Chinese were able to become a recognizable community despite prejudices and injustices upon initial immigration.

Both the Chinese and Japanese populations in Detroit act as strong demonstrations of ethnic minority groups in Detroit which overcame trials of prejudice and economic disparity through the spreading of their culture and heritage via cultural and essential businesses. These places of business allow for these populations to best establish their social visibility and identity in Detroit and in turn, better develop the “sense of belonging” among both their respective ethnic populations and the Detroit population.

Works Cited

Shichi, Asae. “From Hammered-Down Nail to Squeaky Cog: The Modern Japanese American Experience in Detroit.” Asian Americans In Michigan: Voices From the Midwest. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015.

Vega, Sujey. Latino Heartland: of Borders and Belonging in the Midwest. Kindle e-book. New York University University, 2015.

Zuzindlak, Chelsea. “Tell ‘Em You’re From Detroit: Chinese Americans in the Model City.” Asian Americans In Michigan: Voices From the Midwest. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015.