Quotes from participants

Tokens of be2

African American female, age 27

  1. You and Seb be hangin' out all the time when you went to Serveny.
  2. She socked her little brother in the eye. His eye was all swollen up. But he be tellin' stories on her so tha's what he git.
  3. We don't do like what other people our age be doin'. They like go to the clubs, you know. I don't know what you be doing at the club.
  4. It jus', ain't you seen it when they be drippin' it, and it just be wet.
  5. And during the summertime, you just be in the street. Everybody know each other.

African American male, age 26

  1. T. be diggin' that kinda stuff up all the time.
  2. T. be talkin' shit. [context in which T. was just now "talking shit"].
  3. I used to watch the Dukes of Hazzard back in the day. Boss Hog, Bo and Luke Duke. And they all be chasing 'em, police, Rosco be chasin' 'em.
  4. You know, she tired of men hittin' on her. Then the women be hittin' on her too.
  5. And you do be feelin' you know when you go right past the wheel [of a big truck] how that wind pushes you over.
  6. They'll probably stop playin' 'em [Peanuts cartoons]. I bet. Probably be like on cartoon, not on like network TV.

African American female, age 45

What y'all be doin' still at your house while y'all got company over here?

African American female, age 78

  1. He [Coleman Young] cussed too much on the news, and little children be looking at the news, see.
  2. I know but it [some candy] be all on the table.
  3. And they know, when they say they throw a black baby in that river, it be alive, that black folks is gon have a fit. [referring to an incident during the 1967 riots]
  4. The kids get something in they mouth. I don't know what they call that, but be kinda like sores.

African American male, age 79

  1. They be doing they job. [talking about former co-workers]
  2. Yeah, they be some stuff out there. [referring to vegetables in his garden]

African American male, age 41

I used to catch the bus. And um, it was late at night I be comin' from WC3 college, be about 10:30 or 11 o'clock at night and the buses run like every 40 minutes, every hour then.

African American female, age 65

He [a child] does that on the bed. He be goin' around my bed and he be makin' lip noises with the little cars, you know.... But he be drivin' his car.

African American male, age 20

I be bouncing back and forth you know all over the city to keep in contact [with my family]

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Comments on segregation

African American female, age 69

They called it the "white flight". That's what they called it. They all left the city. And now when you go back down through Detroit you will see that most of the neighborhoods are filled with mostly blacks and what some people refer to as poor whites.

African American female, age 27

I don't know why Detroit remains to be so segregated. I guess it's because the whites don't want to live here in the regular neighborhoods with us. But, you know, who gives a damn. If they don't like Detroit, to hell with them.

African American male, age 25

There were 5 whites out of 650 students in my class in high school. It shows how segregated Detroit is from the surrounding suburbs. All the suburbs are mostly white, and Detroit is mostly black.

African American male, age 27

The inner city educational system hasn't caught up to the suburban educational system mainly because you know it's based on a lotta things like property tax. Yeah man we still gettin' an inferior education but the thing is that for me to make it here [to U of M] I had to be equally as good as they are and even better because I had to deal with the shit on the streets, you know what I'm sayin' man?

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Mayor Archer

African American female, age 27

He does take a lotta criticism, but tha's because he's made some radical changes in Detroit and people aren't always ready to make those big jumps and leaps. But he takes those risks and tha's what you need to do. You can't always keep on doin' the same old thing over and over again. He did lose a few cool points though because this winter when we had--it was about--10 inches of snow, he wasn't prepared for it.

African American male, age 41

A lotta these people's already paying taxes to the city to have snow removal, garbage removal, police security, but they're not gettin' it. But here it is, you got the Mayor on the TV saying, "You come out and do the job yourself." Now these people is already holding down one or two jobs, trying to hold a house, keep a house, trying to raise a family, trying to deal with their in-laws. Here it is, the Mayor on the TV, asking you, "Come on out, police your own neighborhoods, remove your own garbage, even more than that, wash out the garbage containers yourself. Hose 'em out." Then he's saying, "Come out and remove the snow too." I could not believe this.

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Grits in the 1940s

African American female, age 78

I go to the store and I say, you got any grits? "What is that?" I said grits and I couldn't tell 'em what it was 'cause all I know it was grits. I didn't even know what grits was made out of, so uh, no, no grits. I think I started Detroit having grits, 'cause I asked for 'em so much.

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"The classic slogan"

African American male, age 41

And he said to me, this is what he said, he said, "Well you know bruh, tha's the way it be sometime." Now that's the classic slogan a brother use... It remind me of everything tha's going on in the world right now... Nothin' personal, but tha's the way it is.

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