One of the more surprising things I’ve learned, in my small office of 4 people, including 2 interns, one of them myself, concerns origins. A resident of a suburb close to Detroit geographically, but worlds away culturally, I’ve always observed some… tension?… uneasiness?….in the relationship between the ‘burbs and the city. This strange relationship flows both ways, but one of the more common complaints deals with the notion that those who live outside the city somehow exploit its people and resources. And then, the logic runs, they have the audacity to come in and claim to have solutions, to be able to fix and remedy the “problems of Detroit”.
I am not saying there isn’t some truth in this concern, and I’m not saying it doesn’t deserve attention. But in my current office, 100% of the employees are suburbanites (n=4). My supervisor lives in Ferndale. The research specialist just bought a house in Ferndale, and the other intern is from a small farming community to the north of Detroit. If you didn’t know, I’m from Royal Oak (right next to ferndale and 15-20 minutes up I75). So culturally, the space I work in is very different from the people the organization works to support. We are all young, white, middle classed and liberal leaning. We are all college educated. We have an open space office, with shiny Macs and organic teas. We are maybe a picture perfect portrait of everything my Detroit friends say they’ve come to mistrust.
And yet, though this culture may sound suspect, I wouldn’t want to brush it off as the “savior complex” voiced in the concern above. At the same time, there is a culture of humility, respect, and listening in this office. In part, as a national organization, this crucial aspect of understanding is necessary when working on the local level. Though Food & Water Watch is structured regionally and nationally, when fights must be taken to the local level, the regional experts need to open their ears to the knowledge of those on the ground. That is what I consistently see in my office, in spite of, or maybe even with the aide of, the shiny Macs and organic teas.
Tomorrow, I am planning on making a statement on the behalf of Food & Water Watch at the regular meeting of the Detroit Water Board. Today, I voiced a concern to my supervisor, that though I feel knowledgable and confident on the subject matter, I feel awkward speaking, considering I am not a citizen of Detroit. She offered me this advise: that 1) I was speaking for an organization the includes both native Detroiters and suburbanites alike and 2) that the involvement and support of the suburbs is crucial in this struggle. She told me that the animosity, the awkwardness in the city-suburb relationship isn’t solved by standing down and not doing anything. It’s made better by people together standing up and supporting, by listening, understanding and synthesizing.
IF you look at a map of the water system of Detroit, you can see something stark and clear. The water my parents get in Royal Oak comes from the same place as the water people get here in Midtown. It flows through the same pipes, goes through the same processing. The suburbs and the city are irrevocably linked, tied together in their conception and their growth. Suburbanites exploiting the city doesn’t solve anything. Neither does suburbanites “saving” the city. But neither, in anyway or ever, will suburbanites cloistering themselves away from the city solve anything. City residents and suburbanites never communicating won’t solve anything. City and suburbs desperately pretending that they are so different they can’t work together, that they are so far apart culturally that it makes no sense to try and see each other eye to eye….. that won’t help anything either.
So culturally, my home town is different than Detroit, and different than my office which in turn, is different from both of them. But I don’t want to be the person who says “I am culturally different, let me save you.” AND I don’t want to be the person who says “I am culturally different, let me ignore you”. I want to be the person who says “I am culturally different. Let’s talk about those differences. Let’s talk about the issues.”
The suburb-City relationship is complex and grueling. But I believe there needs to be a flow, both ways, between the two.
