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`One Little Enclave'
Detroit City Council member explains
her African Town proposal.
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DIANA LIEBERMAN
Special to the Jewish News
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MICHIGAN HERITAGE
cr„4
O
n July, JoAnn Watson intro-
duced two resolutions to
Detroit City Council she hoped
would result in the creation, within
Detroit, of a manufacturing, indus-
trial and retail center to be known
as African Town.
On Oct. 27, she explained the
concept of African Town, which has
drawn a fair share of controversy for
its ethnocentricity, to a meeting
attended by about two dozen mem-
bers of the Metropolitan Detroit
Chapter of the American Jewish
Committee.
"The only three industries flour-
ishing in Detroit are the casino
industry, the drug industry and the
prison industry," said Watson, a
Detroit City Council member since
last year. "These three industries are
not going to furnish prosperity for
the generations to come. The chal-
lenges facing the city of Detroit
require different solutions, different
ways of support."
Watson based her ideas for
African Town largely on a report
commissioned by City Council at
her request. In the report, former
Detroiter Claud Anderson cited his
theory of "PowerNomics" to affirm
that black Detroiters must find
ways to use their purchasing power
for their own economic benefit
rather than spending money at busi-
nesses owned by people of other
ethnic or racial groups.
"The media has been negative,"
attendee Kathleen Straus of Detroit
said at the meeting. "They said the
report attacked immigrant groups.
What did the report actually say?"
Watson answered that the council
Let us lend a hand
never approved Anderson's 80-page
report. But among its pages can be
found such statements as "Hispanic
immigrants get at least five benefits
that advantage them over native
black Americans" or that Jews "used
their culture and religious unit to
dominate some developing indus-
tries and market opportunities in
America ... In the entertainment
industry, for example, they formed
a vertical system that produced
writers, producers, filmmakers, fin-
anciers, talent, promoters, agents,
studios and their owners."
Watson, former director of the
Detroit region of the NAACP,
emphasized that, unlike Anderson,
her own hopes for an African-
themed business district in no way
opposed any other ethnic, racial or
religious group. Instead, she said,
the district would "foster cuisine,
commerce and self-love."
"No one has ever affirmed the
right of black people to be business
owners, not just consumers,"
Watson said. "It was not happening
automatically. That is why I sug-
gested African Town.
"I know one thing," she said.
"The people didn't elect me to do
business as usual."
Genesis Of African Town
According to the official minutes of
the July meeting, Watson's two reso-
lutions, each of which passed with a
7-2 vote, were intended to "rectify
continued disenfranchisement of
the African-American community."
The first resolution defined
Detroit's black population as the
city's majority group as well as "the
'majority-minority'" and the
`under-served populations.
Watson's second resolution called
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