On the demise of black middle class in Detroit, and discrimination...

I grew up in Hong Kong, which is a very, very homogeneous society. Probably 99% of the population are Cantonese-speaking, ethnic Chinese. It was a rare to see anyone whose skin color is different from mine. Occasionally, one would see Indians working as security guards, but they usually had been in Hong Kong for so long that they spoke Cantonese really well. Or, if you went to the more touristy areas like Tsimshatsui or Central, you would see a few more Cauasian faces. But that's about it.

As a result, when I was growing up, I never really grasp the real meaning of discrimination. Being traditional and busy as they are, my parents never explained or discussed this topic either. It's considered as too unimportant a topic to worth talking about. My world view has always been a rosy new world, waiting for me to go out and explore. Never would I ever worry that the Indians are being discriminated.

My first awakening was probably during my college years in Coventry, England. I had always been very busy rushing from lectures, to part-time work, to my homework and study. I remember one day, I walked by the bookshop, and there was some campaigning of the feminist movement, and the discrmination that women still suffer, in things like disparity in salary. I was hit right at the head, to realize that the rest of world really is so different from the place I grew up in.

Back in Hong Kong, no one would talk about feminist movement. There is no need to. Almost all jobs are equal opportunities to women and men alike, as long as s/he has the right qualifications. Women in Hong Kong tend to be very pragmatic as well, and they do not fight to get equal opportunities as a firefighters, for example, because women would have a natural physical disadvantage. So, women collective pick the well-worth battles to fight, and they are winning. There is no such things as glass ceiling. Perhaps, two things have also helped the women's cause, namely, education and the use of domestic maids from low-cost countries like Philippines. The fact that almost all parents, like my parents, value girls as much as boys, and both receive the same education, certainly helps.

So, that was the time when I realize that things that are considered norms in Hong Kong, might not look so normal; or rather, I'd taken for granted alot of natural advantages that I enjoy in Hong Kong could quite conceivably be viewed as something else. To say the least, no working woman in Hong Kong, who has employed domestic maid(s) at home, would have considered themselves discriminating, and even suppressing, their own kinds. There was once a saying, that the success of the career women in Hong Kong is built on the sweat and tears of the domestic maids that they have at home, freeing them from all domestic and even maternal/parental duties.

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What does that have to do with the demise of black middle class in Detroit, you would ask?

I moved to Boston some 12 years ago. Perhaps due to the fact that my husband and I live in areas that one might consider upper-middle class, I didn't get to see that many blacks. The blacks that I came to see more were those teens in downtown, when I was walking to work. This was during the economic boom times under Bill Clinton, and things were rosy. Filene's and Macy's were still solid anchors in downtown.

Perhaps I was too busy with my own life and thoughts, I was walking pass all these without too much observations; much like the time when I was in England, passing by all the campaigning and movements without much thoughts or even curiosity. When I was growing up, I didn't know much about all the racial riots and the unjustice down south in America. All those times, I thought, I'm nice to people, and I expect them to be nice to me.

But of course that doesn't happen that way all the time. Blacks are usually more aggressive and assertive than Asians. The stereotypical angry black male. Again, back then, I didn't consider stereotypes to be that bad a thing. Perhaps you can say I'm too innocent or naive. I just thought, that's the way things (or they) are, and I can take it at that.

As I spend more time in America, I have come to read more on all the history and backgrounds, and the appreciation of why things are or people behave in a certain. Perhaps I'm getting older and wiser too, and I've come to realize that alot of things that I thought or believe, when I was younger, really can be quite discriminating and narrow-minded.

So, when I was reading the New York Times article about the demise of the black middle class in Detroit, following the downward spiral that the Detroit Three goes, I have come to be more understanding and appreciative for their predicament and tough situations that they're in. The YouTube video brings the full impact of what urban decay one is talking about in Detroit.

Understanding and appreciation can be one thing; on the other hand, there are things that I often find it puzzling. In the article, we have a solid middle class parents who were fully committed to college education for both their boys, in the hopes that they would lead a better life than their own. Funds was not a problem, and both brothers got in to university. But neither of them was able to graduate, since they both dropped out, citing lack of focus. As a result, they wandered from jobs to jobs. Although one of the brothers aspired to be a TV anchor, he eventually settles to be an autoworker in one of the GM plants that is going to be closing in Oct 2009.

The wife of one of the brothers went through the same path. The interviews seem to indicate that she had determination not to be like her own mother, suffering through low paying jobs as a single mother.

The puzzling thing is, it's not like they couldn't get in the college, but they can't pull themselves together to at least graduate. The question is, Why?

Is the society, or their own parents set too low an expectation for them? For one, I could not have imagined how my parents would be like, if we (me and my siblings) tell them, we're going to drop out. Not only would they be devastated, but I'm quite certain they would absolutely forbid us to do so, unless they graduate from universities. As my mother used to say, they give us all they can, in the form of a good education. The rest is up to us.

The other puzzling thing to me, about the forever-sunny, optimistic outlook of this black autoworker in the article. Does anyone care to point it out to him that, sometimes favor alone is not enough? Even if God is delivering, you have to go out and seek. Is it perhaps true that no one wants to point out that cold, hard truth to him, lest it would break his spirit? Should they put their heads in the sand, and let tomorrow's worries be dealt with when tomorrow comes? Somehow, I find that strikingly similar attitude of alot of Americans who now find themselves deep in debt, because they keep spending, since they like spending, and they don't want to worry about the day when the bills would finally come.

I find that attitude unrealistic at best, and irresponsible.

Perhaps, it's been the centuries of slavery and oppression of the blacks, that this unrealistic attitude has become ingrained in them, as part of their survival mechanism. Interestingly, they display the exact same attitude towards Obama, proudly showcasing their pride and joy when the first historic black president won the election. It's quite safe to say that, give Obama four years, and one would realize that a black democratic president really isn't any different from a white democratic president like Hillary Clinton. At which point, I wonder what kind of excuses the blacks would come up with, to cover for any shortcomings that Obama might have displayed.