Full Description
A new perspective on the relationship between race and space in Detroit
Detroit seemed to experience an explosive rebirth following its bankruptcy, the largest in US municipal history. It was as if the slate had been wiped clean and the color line erased in the nation's largest Black city. Detroit Never Left explains the relation between racism and space by analyzing the ways opportunity opportunities changed in the years leading up to and following bankruptcy.
Based in part on in-depth interviews with people who identify as "Latina/o/x" in their early 20s, ethnographic observation, media coverage, and philanthropic activity in the metropolitan Detroit area, Nicole E. Trujillo-Pagán shows how a dialectic between empty and real, concrete abstractions created new opportunities for outside investment, often at the expense of public resources and residents' fortunes. She reveals space is much more than a neutral backdrop but instead is continually produced through abstractions that act like bordering and crossing practices in that are ongoing and competitive efforts to control resources and opportunities. With broad implications for analyses of space and opportunity, Detroit Never Left resolves two apparent contradictions: urban youth do not want to be moved out or isolated in their barrio. Similarly, many Detroiters feel spatial changes happen "to," instead of "for" them. Ultimately, residents' concerns underscored broader tensions between democratic inclusion and racialized capitalism.
