Herman’s paper asserts that the ethnic succession or the replacement of one ethnic group by another can be part of the reason inter-ethnic violence occurs. Ethnic succession has been part of American society since time immemorial. In my lay opinion, it is part of the reason inter-ethnic violence occurs. My father came over to America, New York City to be exact, in the 1980’s. The 80’s are remembered as a dark time in New York City history, plagued by violence and urban decay. Vietnamese American immigration was heaviest in the years following the Vietnam War and they filled urban centers in the West Coast, Texas and the traditional population centers in the East Coast.
The majority of them would settle in low income neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and Lower Manhattan, then still a largely low income neighborhood. There, they lived cheek by jowl with Puerto Ricans, Italians, Jews and African Americans. For whatever reason, statistically, Asians are the most likely of all the racial groups to own their own businesses aside from whites. During this time, my father recalled to me, anecdotally, how during this time there was tension between African American and Asian American communities. There would be street encounters. Petty fights over public spaces like playgrounds and parks. There would be robberies, assaults and other blue collar crimes. They avoided associating with each other on good days and on bad days, there would be confrontations and fights. Stores would be robbed. Kids would get beat for no good reason other than stepping on the Asian or Black part of town. You could explain it away from mutual enmity and racism. But is it just a coincidence that many Asian American manual laborers were employed and doing work, garments and other blue collar labor, that African Americans used to do. It can’t be a coincidence that Asian American shops proliferated while other businesses including Black owned ones failed. For whatever reason, they succeeded where others failed or fell behind. Now that is not to say that neither side did not hold racist assumptions about the other. But the threat of succession, especially in the economic and demographic part, must have been a factor in violence and enmity.
In the account of the racial riots in the early 20th century, there were so many familiar overtones that I recognized. The destruction of black businesses and attempts to drive them from spaces that white americans claimed. Furthermore, the fight over municipal government and control of the city reflects Herman’s ethnic succesion theory int he field of politics.
Yet, I cannot say that material factors are the sole determining factor. In these conflicting groups, there have traditionally been points of conflict over beliefs and customs. There may be language barriers standing in the way. They had been impressed with stereotypes from media and developed racist and ignorant beliefs. Material factors may explain part of the reason ethnic conflict happens but not all.
