The Fable of White Ethnic Harmony and Black/White Opposition: Race in Merchant/Customer Conflict in the US

IMES Lecture

Lecture

Steven Gold (Michigan State University) will explore patterns of conflict in two eras in urban neighborhoods in the US. He will review the historical experience of immigrant entrepreneurs in the American South where they first extensively interacted with African Americans, and compare the nature of such conflicts to the contemporary era when increasing numbers of immigrant merchants and customers confront organized opposition from native-born whites.

Conclusions suggest that despite the complex processes involved in shaping urban conflicts, Americans tend to focus on issues of black/white racial opposition to explain such events, while discounting other causes. 

Americans commonly believe that prior to the presence of numerous African Americans in urban neighborhoods, relations between ethnic business owners and their customers were much more harmonious than they have been since. Black/white conflict is often cited in explaining civil disorders that devastated not only urban neighborhoods but Americans’ assessment of city life more generally.

Despite its wide acceptance, the fable of white ethnic harmony and black/white opposition is inaccurate. Prior to the 1920s, conflicts between immigrant entrepreneurs and customers almost always took place among whites, many of whom were themselves immigrants. Interactions between immigrant merchants and blacks were rare because, until the Great Migration, immigrants and African Americans resided in different regions.

An interesting correction in itself, this characterization of merchant/customer conflict is of special relevance today, as many US cities and regions now reveal relations among a diversity of nationality groups with far fewer disputes involving native African Americans and foreign-born merchants.

About Steven Gold

Steven J. Gold is professor and associate chair in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University. Educated at Brandeis University, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, his interests include international migration, ethnic economies, ethnic community development and qualitative field methods.