SOCIAL INTERACTION

Making Contact? Black-White Social Interaction in an Urban Setting

Making Contact? Black-White Social Interaction in an Urban Setting

Images of violence and conflict often go hand-in-hand with life in Black, urban communities, an association buttressed by the sensational media accounts that highlight crime, firebombings and riots. Past scholarly research also depicts interethnic relations in Black neighbourhoods as conflict-ridden, with immigrant merchants pitted against Black customers. However, this paper argues that previous research has been biased toward conflict and controversy and does not reflect the full range of commercial life in Black communities.

Based on in-depth interviews and ethnographic research, it investigates both interethnic conflict and co-operation between African American, Jewish and Korean merchants on the one hand and their Black customers on the other, in five predominantly Black neighbourhoods in New York City and Philadelphia. The paper dispels the myth of the ubiquity of urban conflict and argues that civility, routine and 'business as usual' are the norm.

Black merchants, on the other hand, charge that Black customers refuse to patronise their own, opting instead to buy from neighbouring Jewish and Korean merchants because they have a problem dealing with co-ethnics. For example, a Harlem resident admits Blacks don't buy from each other. They complain about the Koreans, the Jews and the Arabs, but if a Black opens a store in the middle, they go to the same people they complain about. They won't go to the Black. When presented with the choice between racial loyalty and getting the best deal, Black customers—like all customers— choose to shop where they can get the most for their money, regardless of who is doing the selling.

However, what is important to point out here is that Black storeowners do not charge higher prices because they want to, but rather, because their suppliers often charge them ...