Riot or rebellion? Detroiters don't agree
What should we call what happened during those six chaotic days in July 1967 when 43 people died amid gunfire, looting, with whole sections of Detroit in flames?
Many call it a "riot," a term that conjures images of mobs acting spontaneously. Blacks who lived through it call it a "rebellion."
"When I hear the word 'riot' I just get the chills," said Brenda Dixon, 45, of Detroit. "The word 'riot' just seems inhumane, like people acting savagely."
The terms are cognitive shorthand, framing the issues connected with a pivotal time in Detroit's history -- an event that fueled the continuation of white flight and corporate disinvestment, and helped create the most segregated region in the nation....
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Many call it a "riot," a term that conjures images of mobs acting spontaneously. Blacks who lived through it call it a "rebellion."
"When I hear the word 'riot' I just get the chills," said Brenda Dixon, 45, of Detroit. "The word 'riot' just seems inhumane, like people acting savagely."
The terms are cognitive shorthand, framing the issues connected with a pivotal time in Detroit's history -- an event that fueled the continuation of white flight and corporate disinvestment, and helped create the most segregated region in the nation....
Thomas Sugrue, a Detroit native and author, said people gloss over the conditions of the time.
"There is a common myth among whites that Detroit was a great city but then the riots happened," said Sugrue, who teaches history and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and wrote the acclaimed"Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit."
He said Detroit was a great city for whites but not for blacks who were barred from federal mortgage programs, barred from buying homes in white neighborhoods and toiled in menial jobs as whites got promoted.